


A Second Chance

by Theredlion



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Grantedshipping - Freeform, Lance and Yellow ship, lance - Freeform, yellow - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-09-06 01:58:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 21,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8730226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theredlion/pseuds/Theredlion
Summary: Lance has changed after the explosion, but Yellow doesn't know this. He is forced to stay at her house for a while, but strange disasters start happening. Can Yellow learn to trust the man who tried to kill her? Will the two of them be able to stop the mysterious disasters before it's too late?Granted shipping fiction





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> DO NOT ATTEMPT TO UNDERSTAND IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE MANGA FOR YELLOW!!!!!!  
> That doesn't mean you can't read it, though. Please let me know how it is, and if there's anything I should change. Also, no criticizing my ship choices. I'm not a big shipper, but this is perfect, you have to admit!

Twigs and branches snapped beneath Yellow's soft, purple boots. She and Chuchu raced through Viridian Forest, happily chasing each other around trees and through bushes. They soon tired and stopped, and a wild pidgey Yellow had healed last week showed them a berry tree laden with luscious, sweet pecha berries. All of Yellow's pokemon joined in the picnic, as well as a number of wild pokemon.

"All right, everyone," announced Yellow once they had eaten their fill. "Let's get to training." Dody practiced drillpeck on a rock, while Omny and Kitty practiced swimming and flying, respectively. Chuchu used thundershock, and practiced accuracy by severing leaves from the branches of a nearby tree. Gravvy and Ratty both used attacks to shatter nearby rocks, and Yellow herself used her ability of mind reading to help her pokemon hone their techniques.

This was the eighth week she'd trained in the forest with her pokemon, after helping to rebuild Kanto from the Elite Four's armies. And this was the eighth week someone had been watching her.

Lance stepped carefully, using his dark cloak to camouflage himself against the verdant background of the Veridian Forest. The sixteen-year-old redhead had been thrown to his old home of Viridian Forest after Yellow and Pika's megavolt had destroyed Cerise Island. . . and his dream. In its place a new dream had formed. A dream that Yellow had placed there, a dream to help people, in addition to pokemon.

Yellow had reformed Lance, and he wanted to pay her back. But he just didn't know how. Every time she came to the woods to train, he wished he could show her how much she had changed him. Because he wanted to pay her back for everything she had done. And also. . . there was this strange feeling that he got when he was around her. It must have been her enthusiasm. Like a breath of fresh air. It was there even when she was battling him. But he knew that wasn't all.

Lance perched on a tree branch, wondering why he couldn't just go talk to her. Yellow had finally decided to take a break from training, so this would be the perfect opportunity to just go talk to her. But seeing as the last time they had talked, he had tried to kill her, Lance wasn't so sure this would be a good idea.

Chuchu started a game of tag, and Yellow joined her pokemon. Yellow was it, and she chased Dody to the edge of a grassy embankment. She ran full tilt toward her pokemon, laughing- unaware that the edge of the embankment was a sheer drop for over a hundred feet, followed by trees and hard, bone-breaking ground.

"Yellow!" cried Lance, but it was too late- the enigmatic blonde was falling. 'The Healer', falling to her death. Lance had just enough time to think about the irony of the situation before he was on the back of his Aerodactyl, plunging to her rescue.

Yellow screamed as she fell. She couldn't help it. She tried to think of some way out of the situation, a way to avoid her impeding death, but she couldn't. Eyes squeezed shut, it was over all too soon.

Yellow felt a tugging sensation, and rough claws sliding closed around her body. She felt herself being pulled out of her free-fall, spinning to lose momentum, then coming to rest on her back. She finally pried her eyes open, and found herself staring into the dark amber eyes of the most unlikely hero in Kanto. Lance was back.

"Lance?" she tried to say, but all that came out was a squeak.

"Are you all right?", he asked her.

This time she managed an answer. ". . . Yes." Kitty flew down with Chuchu on its back, and landed next to Yellow. Lance could sense the hostility coming from the two pokemon, and the rest of Yellow's pokemon, standing at the top of the cliff.

"It's all right- he saved my life", Yellow reassured. Just then, the sky rumbled and raindrops began spattering down all around them.

"Come on", said Lance, and Yellow followed him. He couldn't mean any harm if he had just saved her life, could he?

First, they flew up and retrieved Yellow's pokemon from the top of the cliff, then Lance led the way through the woods to an old house on the edge of Viridian Forest.

"I remember seeing this place as a kid", said Yellow," I walked past it this one time, then I got lost in the woods. . . That was when I met Red."

Lance glanced at her, then opened the door. "Welcome", he said," to my home."

Yellow stared around the abandoned space, wrapped in a fluffy towel to dry her soggy clothes and hair. At last, she couldn't prolong her curiosity any longer. "Why did you save me, Lance?"

"Someone once told me that pokemon and people could be friends." He responded," That was when I realized that some people were worth saving."

"Thank you."

The rain stopped, and Yellow left, heading home. But she couldn't stop thinking about Lance. . . he really had changed. And there was something about him, something she hadn't thought about before, something like. . . but no. That was just silly. He was just being kind, and here she was, thinking such things.

Yellow's door creaked as she opened it. Things had been a little lonely since she'd moved to her home at the edge of the forest. She stepped inside, and went to close the door, but stopped. For some reason, the pokemon in the forest were in turmoil. Yellow reached down, stretching out to brush a wild ratata's side as it fled to forest. She saw fire, smoke, destruction, and Lance.

"Has he changed, or not?!" she cried to herself, more confused than ever. Kitty flew her over the forest until she saw smoke, and her pokemon set her down next to a blazing forest fire.

"Watch out!" cried a voice, warning Yellow for the second time that day. Lance shoved her out of the way as a huge, burning tree crashed down just where she had been standing.

"You alright?" Lance questioned.

"Thanks to you", replied Yellow. "What happened here?"

"The lightning earlier lit a tree, and when the rain stopped, it was able to spread."

Yellow immediately felt bad for doubting him. "Go, Omny, Ratty, Dody, Gravvy!" she cried, bringing out her pokemon to help. Together, she and Lance and their pokemon fought back the fire until fire crews from Viridian City helped to wrap up the job.

Lance started back toward his home, marveling at the day's events. That was when he noticed it- the tree through his roof. It had gotten charred by the fire, and had fallen, smashing in his roof. The damage wasn't too bad, but it would take time to rebuild, and he wouldn't be able to stay there with a tree in the roof.

He remembered the direction Yellow had walked when she went home, so he followed that direction through the forest. Some of the wild pokemon helped him, and he soon came to a small cottage tucked into the woods. Bright, cheery flowers were planted around it, and pokemon toys were scattered all over the small, modest porch. This was certainly the place.

Yellow lay down on the couch and was asleep in an instant. It wasn't long, however, until she was awakened by a knock on her door.

"Yeah, coming", Yellow called sleepily, standing up. She opened the door, and there was Lance. Again.

"A tree broke through my roof", Lance began, "And I was wondering if I could stay here until it's fixed."

"Um, yeah, sure. Of course you can", Yellow said, surprised by the request for help, but not in a bad way.

"Thank you", said Lance, and for the first time in years, he smiled.

 

 

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	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, I'm back! The first few updates will be REALLY fast because I already wrote 16 chapters, so I'm posting through copy paste ;) #lazyme   
> anyway, I hope you all enjoy!!

Yellow yawned, and stretched her arms up to the ceiling. She felt like there was something she should remember about yesterday, but her mind was still groggy from sleep. She padded softly down the stairs, got out the cereal and milk, and walked into the living room to eat. And then she remembered. 

There on the couch was Lance. Asleep, thankfully, because he might have noticed the red creeping up Yellow's face if he weren't. 

Careful not to disturb Lance, Yellow sat down at the table and poured herself some cereal. She crunched her way through two bowls of it, then sat back and sighed. Right now seemed like the perfect time to go for a walk in the forest. The cool, crisp air always helped to clear her mind. 

She left a note for Lance telling him where she had gone, and to help himself to any food in the kitchen, and then she slipped on her boots and walked softly out the door. 

 

Lance usually never slept in, but today was an exception. After the previous day's excitement, it took until 10:00 for Lance to drag himself from the comfort of Yellow's couch. He sat up, thought over everything that had happened yesterday, and nodded to himself. Yep, his life was shit. Nothing new there. 

He read through the note Yellow had left for him, and went to the kitchen. He ate three apples and a peanut butter sandwich, and washed it down with a glass of milk. He then slumped onto the couch and rubbed his eyes, erasing the last traces of exhaustion. 

After some consideration, Lance decided that the best thing for him to do right now would be to go assess the damage done to his house. He wrote Yellow a note that was much shorter than the one she had left him- 

Be back by sundown,

-Lance

As Lance left the house, he couldn't help but notice that Yellow had left the door unlocked. He frowned. She certainly was trusting. That would get her into trouble one day. 

Lance and his Dragonite alighted at his house soon after leaving Yellow's. Usually, the light of day would make problems seem smaller, melt away complications like mist on a river. But today, the light only revealed the full extent of damage done. 

It would take weeks to repair, if not months. At least he had money, plenty of that. There was always some evildoer no one would mind if he robbed. And so he had. Now, Lance had enough money for repairs. It helped to prepare for situations like this, just in case. 

Lance would have to get Yellow to call a contractor to fix his house. Someone might recognize him, and call the police, and Lance didn't want any more deaths on his hands. 

After gathering up all of his personal items from within the ruined house (there weren't many), Lance figured the best thing to do would be to train with his pokemon. He left his box of items at Yellow's house, and left on foot for a training cave he had discovered one day in the forest. 

 

Yellow's feet carried her to a part of the forest she hadn't been in for a very long time. She slipped neatly behind a waterfall, and through the hidden entrance into a large cave. A thin rift in the ceiling let in light, and a shallow stream flowed through the cave on one side. Various shelves of rock adorned the walls. 

After about an hour of training, Yellow was tired enough to stop her pokemon, and heal them. The physical energy it took to accomplish that feat left her weak on her feet, so she climbed onto the largest shelf of rock, which was covered in soft moss, and was soon deep asleep. 

 

Lance slipped quietly through the entrance to his training cave. The harsh sunlight from above softened as it pierced through the waterfall hiding the cave from the outside world. A long, jagged fissure ran through the ceiling of the cave, casting light onto a little creek twisting slowly through one side of the large cave. 

The soft sound of breathing made Lance start, and as he looked towards it, he noticed Yellow sleeping on his favorite mossy shelf. Her chest moved up and down as she breathed, and she looked so frail just laying there. 

Unsure of what to do now, Lance crept past her to a higher shelf of rock, and sat there, watching her sleep. 

Part of him wanted to be angry at her. This was his special cave, after all. But he knew it wasn't her fault for discovering it. 

Another part of him just wanted to sit there watching her, listening to her breath. That part won out. 

Lance didn't know how long he sat there, just staring at her sleeping form. His cold amber eyes softened as she finally sat up and blinked around her. 

"You're awake", he said quietly, so as not to startle her. 

"Lance!" she said, clearly surprised to see him there. So much for not startling her. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I came to train, but I didn't want to wake you", he replied.

"Oh. . . thanks", Yellow said, her cheeks darkening slightly. She was glad the gloom in the cave hid this from Lance. She just. . . hadn't expected him to be so thoughtful, was all. Surely that was the reason she was blushing. 

"So, I guess I should get going", Yellow said, "I should give you some space to train. And I promised Blue I'd go shopping with her. . .

"Right. So, I'll see you tonight, then", Lance responded, hiding his disappointment at her exit remarkably well. 

 

After Yellow had left, Lance called out all his pokemon to train. They worked hard for a while, until the light from outside started to fade. Lance had Dragonite take him back to Yellow's house, enjoying the speed as the wind blew through his spiky, scarlet hair and forced tears from his amber eyes. 

What is this feeling I keep getting? Lance wondered. This feeling I get when I'm with. . . her?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, beautiful readers! How is life? Mine's kinda crappy right now. I'm sick, so I'm laying on the couch listening to Fallout Boy. No, it's not my favorite band, yes Light em Up is amazing. You should all listen to it sometime. Anyway, the roller coaster has yet to start, so buckle your seat belts and hang onto your popcorn because this is going to be awesome.

A few days had passed since Lance had moved in with Yellow, and they were both starting to get used to the company. 

Yellow, for once, was glad her uncle had decided to take such a long fishing trip last month. He had said that he would come back and check on her, but he'd still be away for the better part of a year. 

She had no clue how he would react to Lance, the man who had tried to kill her (and all of humanity), staying at their house. All she knew was that when he did return from the fishing trip, she could only hope Lance's house would be repaired enough for him to move back into it. Not that she wanted him to leave. . . 

Lance, on the other hand, finally had something to look forward to every day. He'd noticed that Yellow liked to sleep late, so he'd started making breakfast in the mornings. Things hadn't been going that well until he discovered Yellow's cookbook. Shortly thereafter, Yellow also had a reason to look forward to their mornings. 

After making breakfast, Lance often waited patiently for Yellow to wake up before eating. She'd learned to wake up at the sound of Lance putting plates on the table, and breakfast rarely got cold. Lance claimed he only made Yellow breakfast because the recipes made too much food for him to eat, but they both knew it was more than that. 

Then, Lance would go train his pokemon. While he was a considerate house guest in actions, he wouldn't speak much, and when he did it was usually something pessimistic, so Yellow would go hang out with the other Dex holders on numerous occasions. 

It was hard to keep such a big secret from them, but Lance had asked her not to tell anyone, so she worked hard to keep any mention of him out of her conversations, even when Red questioned why she was buying so much food from the store. She had to be really creative with her excuse for that one.

The work on Lance's house would start late next month, so Yellow knew she would have to keep lying for a while longer. And while he had saved her life- twice, she reminded herself- she still wasn't all that used to having the reformed leader of the elite four staying at her house. 

She wasn't sure what he would do at any given time, and in some ways it scared her. Even if his social interactions were a bit stilted, he made breakfast, and that was one thing no one could ignore. 

Yellow herself was currently musing about Lance. She was sitting by Viridian River, on a lichen covered bolder. She never could have foreseen this kinder side to him that he had been showing her lately. He was still the same harsh, cold dragon master who had tried to kill her, but he genuinely seemed sorry for it, even if he wasn't going to tell her strait out. 

It was then that her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of her friend, Green, the Viridian City Gym leader. 

"Yellow!" he cried. Something was clearly wrong. She stood up and started hurrying toward him. "Yellow, come quick! It's Red! He's been kidnapped!"

 

 

"Hyper beam!" Lance commanded his Dragonite. A powerful white beam shot from Dragonite's mouth, shattering a large bolder midair. "Hm. . . not fast enough yet, but we're getting there", mused Lance, "Aerodactyl! Throw another one."

Aerodactyl did as it was told, and this time, Lance had Gyarados use hyper beam to shatter it. "Again!" he commanded, and this time when Aerodactyl threw the bolder, Gyarados used hydro pump to demolish the stone. The attack wasn't aimed correctly, so it hit one sde of the bolder, resulting in larger chunks of shrapnel. 

"Gyarados, you need to work on accuracy. Dragonite, speed. Dragonair, power. Aerodactyl, strength- I notice you're flagging", Lance informed his pokemon. He went down the line, working with Altaria and his other dragonair until they had all gotten noticeably better. 

Lance was almost ready to leave when he froze suddenly. Something wasn't right. He read the minds of nearby pokemon, slowly extending his reach outward until he caught a glimpse of Yellow and Green running. He recognized their surroundings as being along the way to Pallet Town, and that was definitely the direction they were headed. 

Knowing full well that this probably would mean revealing himself to Yellow's friends and the public, jeopardizing his own safety, and possibly ruining his chances to spend any more time with Yellow, Lance raced toward Pallet Town. Yellow had looked worried- very worried, and Lance feared she might get hurt. 

Why do you care so much? He asked himself, but he couldn't answer the question. Lance had Dragonite carry him to Pallet Town, then they circled before seeing Green and Yellow hurrying toward a small group of people gathered at a house.

 

Yellow raced towards Red's house, and when she and Green got close, they saw Blue, Daisy, and Professor Oak all standing by Red's house. 

"Yellow!" called Blue. As Green and Yellow reached the group, Blue explained that she'd already gotten in touch with the other Dex holders, and they were all on their way. 

"What happened?" gasped out Yellow, panting from all the running she'd done to get there. 

"Red told me earlier today that he'd been getting threatening notes. Apparently, someone wanted revenge for something or other, and they were threatening to kidnap Red", Green explained. "That's all he said to me, but later today, I came to his house to get some paperwork for the gym, and Red was gone. The place was a mess- it looks like someone really strong just came in, defeated Red, and dragged him out."

"I know who it was", stated Blue, "I know who it has to have been. And he'll be after you next, Yellow."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really need to learn how to tag. . . if anyone has a tag they think would work on this story, please tell me and I'll add it!! All I could think of was pokemon and Lance and Yellow.

Lance had Dragonite land behind the house Yellow and her friends were clustered by. He figured it must be Red's house, especially since he heard the occasional cry of "Red" and "kidnapped" coming from Yellow's friends. 

Dragonite lifted Lance up to the highest room, the one with the window smashed out. Lance carefully squeezed through the hole in the window, making sure not to cut himself on the jagged glass. 

Everything was in disarray, from the posters on the walls, many of which were singed or torn, to the floor, where books, games, and other items of Red's were scattered. Lance followed the trail of destruction downstairs. 

Someone had just waltzed right in, defeated the Kanto champion, and walked out with him as a hostage. But why would anyone want to kidnap Red? It made no sense. Perhaps someone wanted revenge for Red defeating them? Someone like. . . Agatha. Agatha and Lorelei would definitely want revenge. Red had thwarted their plans, after all. 

But why target Red, and not Yellow? Of course. It all clicked then. By targeting Red, it would cause more commotion. The league champion missing, versus a mystery girl almost no one had heard of missing. Also, Red's house was positioned correctly for all of the Kanto dex holders to reach it quickly, but they would have to wait for backup to arrive. 

Professor Oak would provide useful intelligence, and if need be, leverage to get the others to do what Agatha and Lorelei wanted. The trainers had all helped thwart their plans, so they would all pay. Finally, the other girl there would spread the word. Once there was enough publicity, the twosome could use the hostages as a diversion while they tried to summon Lugia or Ho-oh again. 

That meant that right at this moment, they could be ready to make their move, and kidnap the group outside. No one would be able to fight back, what with the risk of harm befalling Red. 

Lance had to go warn them, no matter what it would mean for him. 

 

 

"Who?" asked Green, fury building in his eyes as he prepared to fight whoever had kidnapped his friend. 

"Lance", said Blue, "It's got to be Lance."

"No", said Yellow, before she could stop herself. Everyone turned to look at her. "I mean. . . I don't think so. I think he changed, after our battle."

Green sighed. "Yellow, you can't just think the best of everyone you meet. It has to be him. Can you think of anyone else it could be?"

Yellow hesitated, and Green took that as acceptance of his words. "See, Yellow? There's no other person it could be. It's got to be- "

"You need to leave!" Lance said, slamming open Red's front door. "They're coming, you have to leave now!"

"Lance!" cried Yellow, taken aback by Lance's sudden appearance, but not as much as everyone else. "I thought you didn't want anyone to know you were here."

"This is too important. Agatha and Lorelei, they're coming for you, all of you. Yellow, you have to convince your friends to run!"

Unfortunately, Yellow was the only one listening to him. The others were too busy getting out their poke balls to focus on Lance's words. 

"Yellow, what's going on?" asked Blue. 

"Everyone," Yellow said, "Meet Lance. Don't worry- we can trust him. Also, we need to leave. Now."

"What makes you think we can trust him?!" Blue demanded. "He tried to kill you- he tried to kill all of humanity!"

"He saved my life", Yellow said quietly, "twice. He's been staying at my house for almost a week now. If he were going to hurt me, he'd have done it by now."

Everyone stared at her, slack-jawed. Even Blue, for once, didn't have anything to say. Lance did, though.

"Professor, get to Blaine's gym. He can protect you and her", he said, gesturing toward Daisy. "Yellow, Blue, Green, come with me. We need to get out of here before they arrive."

"Before who arrives, Lance?" came a taunting voice from the sky. As they all turned their gazes upward, Lorelei and Agatha came into view. . . riding the legendary fire-bird pokemon, moltres.

"So that's how they beat Red", Green said.

Lance released all of his pokemon, sending Dragonite to take the Professor and Daisy to Blaine's gym on Cinnibar Island. 

"Not so fast", said Agatha, and she sent out a gastly to intercept Dragonite. A bolt of electricity brought it up short as Yellow and Chuchu joined the battle. 

Lance nodded gratefully at her, but Lorelei brought out her devestatingly powerful ice-types, and Agatha sent out all of her ghost-types as well. 

"Now", said Agatha, "we could stop here, and you can all come peacefully with us, or we could battle, and I tell my accomplices holding your friend captive to. . . ah, put him down."

Yellow gasped. Green glared. Blue frowned. . . and turned into Agatha. 

The Agatha on the ground ordered gastly to attack the one in the air, claiming that one was an impostor. The Agatha in the air ordered gastly to attack the one on the ground. Gastly floated in the middle, unsure of who to target. 

Lance had Gyarados use hydro pump on Agatha and Lorelei, soaking them head to toe. Yellow, catching on, used Kitty to lift Chuchu onto moltres's back, where it used used thunder bolt on the soaked duo. 

Yellow grinned at Lance, before explaining to Agatha and Lorelei exactly why their kidnapping scheme wasn't going to work. "We just fried your electronics. Now, there's no way you can contact your friends holding Red captive."

"Do yourselves a favor and give up now", Lance finished for her. 

Blue let her ditto flow off her face, revealing her true self again. "Thanks, Dittie", she said to the little pink pokemon. 

Agatha and Lorelei were far from defeat, however. Lorelei's dewgong used ice beam to form handcuffs on Blue and Green, trapping them together. Agatha's driftblim then picked the two of them up, carrying them toward moltres. 

Agatha and Lorelei's other pokemon fought off Lance and Yellow's attempts to get Blue and Green back.

Lorelei ordered Walrein and Weavile, two of her strongest pokemon, to use their ultimate move, sheer cold, on Lance and Yellow. 

Lance threw himself in front of Yellow as the attack hit them. When the smoke had cleared, Agatha and Lorelei were gone, and they had taken Blue and Green with them. 

That didn't matter to Yellow, however- she was bent over Lance. He wasn't breathing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try and update the rest of the chapters before I fall asleep. No promises, though! Maybe I'll write Chapter 17 after my nap. Anyway, hope you like this one.

Tears cascaded down Yellow's cheeks. She couldn't seem to stop them. "T-try again, Chuchu", she said, and the little electric mouse shot still more energy at Lance's chest. The attempt was futile, however. He wasn't waking up. No pickachu-powered defibrillator was going to change that.

"Please get up, Lance", Yellow sobbed. She knew she was a mess, but she couldn't help it. She felt like her whole world was shattering around her. 

"Lance!" shouted Yellow. "You can't die!" She leaned down, and not even knowing what she was doing, she entwined her hand with his. . . and kissed him. On the lips. Yellow pulled back abruptly. What was she doing? Lance was dead. 

He was dead. . . and he wasn't coming back. She went to pull her hand away from his, but his hand stiffened and held on. She glanced down, but he still wasn't moving. 

Probably just her imagination, she figured. But it wasn't her imagination. 

Lance's eyelids fluttered, and he gasped in air, frantically tried to make his lungs work again. Yellow pulled him into a sitting position. She'd read somewhere that a more upright position helped with breathing problems. She then patted his back until Lance had his breathing under control again.

He looked at Yellow, his amber eyes holding depths she couldn't even begin to fathom. His hand gently wiped a tear from her cheek. 

"Did you really just kiss me?", he asked. All she could do was nod.

 

 

Blue cracked open her eyes cautiously, not wanting her captors to see that she was awake. After Driftblim had picked her and Green up, she had blacked out. It was probably from her fear of bird pokemon, but something might have been done to make her unconscious. 

When Blue saw that she was alone and in a cell, she opened her eyes fully and sat up. There were no windows, so instead, light came from a harsh, blinding row of LEDs placed on the ceiling. 

Blue shivered, and watched as her breath turned into little puffs of steam. As she took in her surroundings, Blue grimaced. The walls, ceiling, and floor were all sterile and white. There wasn't any furniture. She knew where she was. 

Blue was in the lair of the Masked Man. Again. 

 

 

Yellow leaned against Lance's back, clutching tightly to his waist so she wouldn't fall off his Aerodactyl. She knew they were going to see Lance's cousin, but she didn't know who that was, or where his cousin lived. All she knew was that Lance was okay, so everything would turn out fine now. 

As the two of them soared over the region, Yellow started to get a feeling like she'd never had before. There was just her and Lance, no one else. It was just the two of them, together. Aerodactyl flew through a cloud, so Yellow buried her face against Lance's cape until they were out of it. 

Eventually, Yellow drifted off to sleep, still holding onto Lance tightly. 

Aerodactyl landed, and Lance gently shook Yellow awake. The two of them walked inside a large building. 

"Where are we?" asked Yellow. 

"At my cousin's gym", Lance replied.

A girl slightly older than Yellow greeted them as they entered the gym. She had blue hair, and a cape somewhat similar to Lance's. 

"Who's this, Lance?" she questioned, gesturing toward Yellow.

"Clair, meet Yellow. Yellow, this is my cousin, Clair." he said, introducing them to each other.

"Hi", Yellow said, smiling at Clair. 

Clair seemed to consider something, then smiled mischievously at Lance and Yellow. 

"You didn't tell me you had a girlfriend, Lance", she said, smirking. Yellow blushed, and Lance frowned at his cousin. 

"As you can see, Clair isn't the most tactful of conversationalists", Lance explained to Yellow, ignoring his cousin's gibe. 

Clair smiled and led them down a hallway. "The guest rooms are right this way", she said. "Yellow, you can have this one, and Lance, this one's your's." She couldn't resist poking fun at them again, however. "Unless you'd like to share a room. . . "

"No!" Lance and Yellow answered simultaneously. 

 

 

Green groaned, and slowly stood up, stretching. So this was his cell. Wow. Someone needed a better decorator. 

There was no furniture, and the only light source was a row of bright lights along the ceiling. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all white, reflecting the harsh light into his eyes and causing him to wince. The air was cold enough for him to see his breath. 

There was a commotion outside the thick white panel that served as a door. Green looked up, and watched as a man wearing a creepy looking mask walked into the room. 

Green knew who this was from Blue. The Masked Man.

"Did you lose your cane, Pryce?" he asked innocently. 

"Funny, Green. Very funny. But guess who the prisoner here is?" Pryce replied. 

"You're being used by Agatha and Lorelei, and I'm in a cell. I wonder. . . seems like that would be both of us", Green knew that being too cocky could prove unsafe, but the man just laughed. 

"Oho, you've got spirit all right. It will be fun to break you. . . but only after Agatha's had her turn."

His words shouldn't have scared Green, but they did, just a bit. Perhaps it was the mask. That certainly added to the overall creepiness of the situation. Regardless, Green knew he had to stay on top of the conversation. 

"Why did you come here, to taunt me?" Green asked. 

"Oh no, I just wanted to welcome you to my lair. And with that, I'll let Agatha and Lorelei start their work", he said, exiting the room. In his place, Lorelei entered. 

She closed the door behind her, and brought out her Wevile. 

"Now then", said the ice-type trainer, "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way. It's up to you, Green."

 

 

Yellow lay back on the soft bed Clair had provided her with. She wondered how she and Lance would find her friends, let alone rescue them. For being as tired as she was, it was incredibly hard for her to get to sleep. 

She though about Lance, and all her worries faded into the background. There were plenty of bridges for them to cross, but they would do it together, and they still had yet to reach those bridges in the first place. 

Yellow closed her eyes, and drifted into a deep sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I think the roller coaster has well and truly started. Just so y'all know, I don't do emotional roller coasters. Not like the- oh, I love you, oops I hate you- kind. Those are just annoying to me. I will write the- oh you're dead, oh now you're alive- type, though, as you all know by this point. :)

Blue heard a noise in the hallway beyond her room. She immediately lay down and pretended to be asleep. 

The door opened loudly, and Blue groaned in her 'sleep' to add effect. Someone walked toward her, and from the sound of the footsteps, she knew who it was. 

"Welcome back to my lair, Blue", the Masked Man said. He walked up to her and kicked her in the ribs. Hard. 

"I know you're awake", he said, "I suppose I'll just have to let Agatha begin her work now."

He walked out, and Agatha entered. "Having troubles sleeping, Dearie?" she asked, watching Blue pretend to sleep. "I'll help you with that. Dusknoir, use hypnosis!"

Blue tried to roll out of the way, but the attack followed her. As it hit her, she felt darkness wrap itself around her, pushing out all thoughts of wakefulness. 

The last thing she remembered was Agatha saying, "Dream eater, Dusknoir!" And then she was in agony. 

 

 

Lance opened his eyes, and rolled out of bed slowly. For once, he was somewhere safe. He smelled Clair cooking- the unmistakable scent of mildly burnt food, and the spiciest seasonings she could find. 

It wasn't like he could complain, though. She was, after all, making breakfast. Lance stretched, and padded softly towards the kitchen. He wondered if Yellow was awake yet. 

When Lance got to the kitchen, he saw Clair and Yellow cooking breakfast together. 

"Good morning, sleepy head", Clair said. 

"Morning, Lance", Yellow said cheerfully. She was always happy. He wondered what she had to be happy about right now, but didn't ask. 

"Morning", he replied to both of them. Yellow was making pancakes, and Clair was frying tomato berries with moomoo butter, and some sort of spicy seasoning. It actually looked quite good. 

As they finished eating breakfast, Lance frowned slightly, thinking about how they would find Yellow's friends. 

He knew a place that might hold clues, but he didn't want to return there. Ever, if possible. It wasn't like he had much of a choice, though. 

"Hey, Lance!" called Yellow from outside the gym, jolting him out of his thoughts. "Your dragonite's back."

Lance hurried out to see. Dragonite stood wearily just beyond the entrance to the gym. 

"Did you get it done?" Lance asked. Dragonite nodded. "Good. Now, let me heal you." Lance placed his hand on Dragonite's tough, scaly forehead, and released enough energy to completely heal his pokemon. He returned it to its poke ball, and brought out his Aerodactyl once more. 

"Come on", he said to Yellow. He climbed onto Aerodactyl's back, and Yellow clambered on behind him. 

He took a minute to enjoy the feeling of her arms wrapped around him before taking off, circling over the gym once, and setting his sights for Cerise Island. 

 

 

Blue moaned. She was beaten up pretty badly, but she hadn't cracked. She could only hope that Green hadn't either. Agatha had questioned her about the gym leader's security systems, and where she thought Yellow and Lance were hiding. She had lied, and Agatha knew it. 

Suddenly, a portion of the wall started forming into a solid, a small, pink lump. 

"Ditty!" whispered Blue excitedly. It must have managed to sneak onto driftblim while it was carrying her and Green away. 

Blue's pokemon happily climbed onto her shoulder, cooing over bruises it found on her arm. 

"I'm fine, Ditty. But you have to find Yellow. She can get us loose."

Blue's ditto nodded, and squeezed under the door, forming into a flat surface with a similar texture to the floor. 

Inside the cell, Blue wondered if that was the right thing to do. Ditty wasn't very strong, and she dreaded the thought of it getting into trouble. 

But these doors had individual codes to unlock them, so it wasn't like Ditty could just steal a key to get her out. This was the only way she and Green could hope to escape. 

 

 

Lance and Yellow jumped down from Aerodactyl's back as it alighted on a precipice of rock overlooking Cerise Island's volcano. 

"What are we doing here?" asked Yellow. Neither of them were comfortable being on the island, not after what had happened last time. 

"Looking for clues", Lance replied. His voice was somewhat strained, as though he was worried they might be attacked at any minute.

The two of them walked through the island's cave system together, scouring every surface for something to aid them in their search for Yellow's friends. 

Yellow noticed that Lance kept Aerodactyl out of its poke ball. The cave dwelling pokemon would be good at picking out irregularities in the caverns they passed through. 

At last, just as Yellow and Lance were reaching the final cavern, Lance noticed something on the floor. He bent down to pick it up- and smirked. 

Lorelei, the note said, meet me under the mausoleum in Lavender Town. -Agatha

"Yellow", he said, drawing her attention to the note in his hand. He handed it to her, and she read it, a smile slowly forming on her lips. She looked up excitedly. 

"Lance, this might be where they are!" she said, "Or it could lead to another clue. But no matter which it is, we have a way to find them now." 

The relief was plain in her voice, and her excitement was contagious. Lance soon found himself smiling as well. They would free Yellow's friends. Then Agatha and Lorelei would pay for their misdoings. 

Yellow may not like it, but it had to be done. Lance would kill Agatha and Lorelei.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to have some real names for my chapters, but I can't think of any. Let me know if you do so I can add them in for previous chapters, please!

Yellow grinned, reveling in their swift passage through the sky. She and Lance were travelling via dragonite, and there was no feeling like it in the world. 

She shivered in the chilly evening air, and took one arm off Lance's waist to pull his cloak up over herself. She scooted closer to him, letting his body keep hers warm. 

She then wrapped both arms around him tightly again, and rested her cheek against his broad, powerful back. 

"Warm enough yet?" Lance asked her. 

"Mmm", she responded happily. She felt him chuckle and lean forward over Dragonite's neck, urging the mighty dragon pokemon into a nose dive. 

"Ah!" She cried, tensing, but Lance reassured her.

"It'll be fun", he said. She relaxed, trusting him- until they punched through a cloud and she saw the ground hurtling up at them.

"Look out, we'll crash!" She cried fearfully, clutching Lance's waist and squeezing her eyes shut. 

Lance laughed at her fear. "Hold on tight!" He cried, pulling them up just as Yellow felt certain they would slam into the ground. 

She sighed in relief, but it wasn't long before she was laughing, too. The adrenaline pumping through her system made her feel like anything was possible, and being this close to Lance made her sure of it. 

All too soon, they reached Lavender Town, and Dragonite landed in front of the mausoleum. Lance returned Dragonite to its poke ball, and the two of them walked inside. 

Dank, musty air assailed Yellow's nose, and she wrinkled it in distaste. Lance stiffened beside her. 

"What is it?" she asked him, but he only shook his head.

They continued walking, searching for a sign that Agatha and Lorelei had been there, but neither of them could find anything. After searching the entire building, Yellow asked Lance to show her the note again. 

"It says 'under the mausoleum'", Yellow read, " Do you know if this place has a basement?"

Lance smirked, "I think it does. Clever."

Yellow blushed at the compliment and followed Lance down to the first floor again. They would find her friends, no matter what it took. 

 

 

A blip sounded from Agatha's computer. She opened it, and smiled nastily. 

"Lorelei", she said, "It seems your trap has caught someone. Let's go pay them a visit."

 

 

Yellow marveled at how good she was at getting into trouble. She and Lance had searched the bottom floor again, and discovered a hollow-sounding spot on the floor. 

Further investigation (possibly involving Lance's dragonite using hyper beam) had revealed a stairway leading down. 

As they had followed it, Yellow had stumbled on something and bumped against the wall. It had slid out of the way, allowing her to continue through, and closed up after her. Now, she couldn't find a way out of the small, tight chamber she was in. 

She banged against the wall, yelling for Lance, but he couldn't seem to hear her. She wasn't even sure which wall Lance was on the other side of now. 

 

 

Lance glanced around, confused. Yellow had been right next to him, but suddenly, she was gone. Chuchu, who had been walking just behind them using flash to light the way, also looked confused. 

"Yellow?" Lance asked. No reply. "Yellow?" he called again, louder this time. Lance frowned, and looked around for her. It wasn't like Yellow to just disappear like this. Something must have happened to her, but what, he couldn't imagine. They were on a staircase. You couldn't take a wrong turn when there weren't any turns to take. 

Lance decided to continue searching for clues. If he found Agatha and Lorelei, chances were he would find out what had happened to Yellow. 

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Lance rounded a corner- and a row of lights flickered to life. Many of the bulbs were quite dim, but they were still bright compared to the more mild light of Chuchu's flash. 

Lance winced, and saw ancient, decrepit computers on desks strewn throughout the room. He went over to one, and using Chuchu's electric power to charge it, he booted it to life. 

The computer grumbled to life, whirring and humming at him. Open on the screen were files- files of children. Wiping some of the dust off the screen with a corner of his cloak, he noticed one picture that looked familiar. 

"Blue", Lance read aloud. "Gender: female. Condition: healthy. Possible candidate." Possible candidate for what? He wondered. 

Lance searched through the rest of the files. Names like Silver, Karen, and Will were at the top of each file. They were all children of about six. 

Finally, he found the connection. In the corner of each file, in very small print, were the words 'Masked Child'. 

"Feh heheheh!" A voice laughed from behind him. Lance would recognize that laugh anywhere. It was Agatha. He spun around, but no one was there. 

"You move too slow, dragon master", Agatha taunted him. He whirled again, but she wasn't there. 

"What did you do to Yellow?" He demanded, bringing out Drgaonite. 

"You'll never see her again", Agatha assured him, "She's long gone now."

Lance had Dragonite use hyper beam. The attack destroyed desks, chairs, and computers, even blasting a hole in the wall, but Agatha was still unharmed. A figure slipped past the hole in the wall- on the other side. 

"I know where you are, Agatha. You can't hide from me", Lance said, gesturing toward the wall. Dragonite caught on, and used hyper beam again. 

Chunks of rubble flew across the room. Lance shielded himself with his cloak. There was a grunt of pain, and Lance rushed toward it. He and Dragonite would get their revenge. Then, they would find Yellow. 

Agatha lay on the ground. She never should have tried to take on Lance single-handed. Lance grasped her collar, hauling her up until her feet could barely brush the ground. 

"Where. . . is. . . Yellow?" He demanded of her. Agatha coughed, and then replied. 

"Like I would know. Lorelei's the one who set all the traps." Chuchu bristled, glowering angrily at the ghost-type trainer. Lance dragged her over to one of the few computers still left standing after Dragonite's hyper beam. 

"Contact her", growled Lance, "Find Yellow. Do it now!"

"You see, Deary", the old woman replied innocently, "I was just a distraction. Lorelei already has Yellow. She's heading back to our base with her." She noticed the murderous look in Lance's eyes, then added, "Do whatever you want with me, but know that if you hurt me, you'll never see your precious Yellow again."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Yawn* almost nap time. Alright, just a few more. It took me forever to write these, so it feels good to be able to publish them.

Yellow became more and more frantic as she searched for a way out of the cramped space she was in. She felt like she was running out of air, but it was probably the closeness of the walls speaking. 

Yellow noticed herself getting dizzy. She couldn't have run out of oxygen that fast, could she have? All she knew was that she could no longer stand. She fell into a wall, and slid down it to the floor. 

She knew she must have been hallucinating when Lorelei opened a section of the wall. A muk stood beside her, using a powerful poison powder on Yellow. She was too tired to stay awake. . . everything was just fading away. 

"Lance. . . " gasped out Yellow as darkness swam before her eyes, ". . . Help. . "

Lorelei laughed. "No one can help you now, child." But Yellow had already passed out. 

 

 

Lance tied Agatha's hands behind her back before leading her out of the mausoleum. The old woman couldn't stop cackling to herself, which might have been creepy if she weren't tied up. 

Lance figured the best thing to do would be to take her back to Blackthorn City. The secret training area behind the gym, the Dragon Den, had a suitable prison. It hadn't been used for years, but he figured that it should still be in good condition. 

Dragonite carried Agatha in its claws, and Lance rode on its back. When they reached Blackthorn, Clair asked what had happened to Yellow. Lance couldn't respond. The pain in his eyes was enough to tell Clair what she wanted to know, however. 

Once Agatha was secured, Clair made Lance sit down to dinner. He didn't take a single bite, however, and shrugged off all the questions Clair tried to ask about the day's events. 

"Lance", she tried again, "What happened to Yellow?"

"They took her", he responded, the first thing he'd said since returning to Blackthorn City. 

"We'll find her", Clair reassured him, placing a hand comfortingly on top of his hand. Lance let it sit there for a moment, then pulled his hand out from under his cousin's. He then stood up and left abruptly. 

"I really need to work on this whole comforting thing", Clair muttered to herself. 

 

 

Yellow awoke to find herself in a barren room. "Oh good", came a voice. "You're awake. I was beginning to think you'd died on me. My guests have been doing that a lot lately."

Turning on her side, Yellow saw a strange figure wearing a white mask. The Masked Man. Blue had talked about him sometimes. 

"What guests?" Yellow demanded, then burst into a fit of coughing. 

"That would be the poison leaving your system. My new accomplices may lack finesse, but their methods get the job done." 

"What guests!?" Yellow screamed. He'd better not have hurt her friends. 

"You may have known them. . . " the Masked Man said vaguely. 

Yellow shook her head, not wanting to believe it. Her friends. . . they couldn't be dead! Maybe he was bluffing, just trying to get to her. That must have been it. But the uncertainty was still there, gnawing at her. 

"Now", said the Masked Man, "Either you tell me where Lance is, or I can make you tell me."

 

 

Dragonite's back felt strangely empty without Yellow sitting behind Lance. Almost as empty as Lance's heart was now that Yellow was gone. He frowned, wondering what the sudden stinging sensation in his eyes was from. Then it hit him. 

Lance was doing something he hadn't done since he was seven years old. Lance was crying. 

He brushed back the tears savagely. Lance didn't have time to mope, he had to find Yellow. Agatha was turning out to be even less help then he had hoped, so now he was going back to Lavender Town to search through the computers in the mausoleum. 

That was when he realized something. He already had all the pieces necessary to find Yellow. The Masked Children. . . The Masked Man. . . and the names he'd seen. Karen, Will, and Silver. 

"Dragonite", announced Lance, "We're turning around. It's time to go find a boy named Silver." 

 

 

Silver was worried. Blue had sent him a message that Red had been kidnapped, so he had told her he'd hurry over to Pallet Town. But when he'd gotten there, no one had been around. Red's house was a mess, and there was evidence of a battle all around his house, but nobody had been there. 

He had spent the night on Red's couch, and the next day, Gold and Crystal showed up. Not soon after, Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald all came. They had found Yellow's, Blue's, and Green's houses all empty as well. Even the professor was gone. 

At first, they had all just waited. When nobody showed up,however, Silver decided to take matters into his own hands. He realized that the only person who would want to kidnap all of these people would have to be Lance, of the Elite Four. 

Blue had told him about Lance. Lance was a powerful dragon master who Yellow had defeated a few months ago. No one had seen or heard from him since. Perhaps he'd been planning this for a while now, plotting his revenge. 

The only family he seemed to have was the Blackthorn City gym leader, Clair. So Silver decided to travel to Blackthorn to get some answers. 

Looking back, perhaps it wasn't the best of ideas. It was, however, the only way Silver could think of for finding Lance. 

After travelling to Blackthorn, Silver entered the gym. Clair said hello, and Silver asked if she knew where Lance was.

"Are you Silver?" Came a quiet voice from behind Silver. He spun around- and found Lance. 

"What did you do to Blue and the others?" Silver demanded.

"I'm asking the questions here."

"I think you should answer me first."

"Dragonite, hyper beam."

"Yes, okay! I'm Silver", Silver said quickly, watching the energy build in Dragonite's mouth. Dragonite closed its mouth, and Lance continued questioning Silver.

"Where is the Masked Man?"

Horror flashed in the boy's eyes. "I'm not going back there. Blue and I escaped years ago, and I'm never going back."

"You are if you want to save your friends."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry these are so short. They're over 1000 words each, but now that I've published them, the chapters all seem so small. At least this means the updates will be faster! ;)

Lance and Silver flew high over Johto. More precisely, Lance flew on Dragonite's back. Silver was in Dragonite's claws. 

"Tell me", Lance demanded. 

"No, I can't!"

"He's going to hurt your friends."

"Why would he have my friends? He doesn't have a reason to kidnap them. You, on the other hand, do."

"Dragonite. . . ", said Lance tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. Dragonite released Silver, letting him plummet through the clouds. As its trainer didn't command it to catch the boy, Dragonite stayed where it was, getting more and more worried by the second. 

Finally, Lance relented. "Oh, all right. Go get him."

Dragonite dove strait down, only veering up again after its claws had hooked Silver's clothes, tugging the young red-head out of his fall. 

"Ready to talk yet?" Lance wanted to know. 

". . . . "

". . . Dragonite, -"

"Okay! I'll tell you where he is. Then you can let me go, right?"

"No. I need to know you're not lying. You'll have to come with me."

". . . Alright."

And with that, Silver had agreed to work with the man who just months before had been trying to destroy all of humanity. To save his friends. This was a BAD idea. But he didn't exactly have a choice. 

 

 

Yellow woke up. Again. She'd grown to hate waking up in the short time that she'd been a prisoner of the Masked Man. Almost as soon as she was dragging herself off the hard, freezing floor, Lorelei walked in. 

"Tell me", she demanded for the fifth time that day. Yellow just shook her head. Glowering at the young girl's stubbornness, Lorelei brought out her Dewgong. 

"One last chance", she warned. Yellow backed up, shaking her head. She knew what would happen. It was what always happened. "Alright then", Lorelei said, frowning. 

She didn't understand this girl's attachment to Lance, especially since he had tried to kill her. Recently, too. But if Yellow was going to be this way, she'd just have to do it again. "Ice beam", Lorelei commanded. Dewgong let out a thin stream of ice, shoving Yellow violently back against the wall. Lorelei was done playing, however. 

"Full power, Dewgong", she growled. 

Yellow's eyes widened in fear as the attack hit her. She barely had enough strength left to stand, let alone dodge or fight back. So she just stood there, close to collapsing, as the attack slammed into her. Yellow knew that if she collapsed, Lorelei wouldn't let up until she was unconscious. 

Yellow screamed as the force of the attack threw her up against the wall again, little cracks blooming around where she hit. Her skull cracked hard on the wall, and she slumped to the floor.

"Ready yet, Yellow?" Lorelei asked in a calm, even tone of voice. She might as well have been talking about the weather. Yellow pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. 

"I'll. . . never. . . tell you", she gasped out. Defiance shown in the girl's eyes. 

Lorelei growled in frustration. She would break Yellow, no matter what it took. Then once Lorelei had her information, she would kill Yellow. Wouldn't that be fun. 

 

 

Lance and Silver landed by an old, broken down laboratory. The outside was a mess, crumbling to pieces. As Lance started forward, Silver hung back, but fearing a trap, Lance made him go first. 

As the two of them reached the second basement floor, Lance stopped suddenly. Something was wrong. Suddenly, a the floor slid back. Immediately, Lance threw himself in front of Silver, ready to take the attack. Unfortunately, it was a net. 

Lance and Silver were dragged roughly into the air. Silver cried out, and Lance grunted in surprise. They both twisted around, trying to reach their poke balls, but the net was too tight, and they couldn't. 

Lance heard footsteps, and twisted around, craning his neck to see who it was. There stood the Masked Man. 

"Araiados", he said, releasing the poisinous spider pokemon, "It seems we have some guests. Perhaps you'd like to welcome them. 

 

 

Ditty hadn't made much progress. The little pink pokemon kept having to hide as various pokemon and these two sinister looking people walked past it. And then, once it reached the surface, a Dragonite landed with two passengers. 

The two humans went inside, and Dragonite's trainer had it return to its poke ball. Ditty recognized Silver from a picture Blue had. Figuring these two must be here to help, Ditty followed them, still camouflaged. 

A net shot up, and the one stepped in front Silver to protect him. That was what decided it for Ditty. These two were definitely good. 

When the evil Masked Man that had hurt Blue showed up, and started threatening Silver and the other person with an Ariados, Ditty knew it had to do something right away. But what? 

 

 

Silver knew he must have misjudged Lance after he tried to protect him from the net. It was too late for regrets now, however. 

"Any last words?" Asked the Masked Man. Silver could only stare in horror. "I remember you", said the Masked Man, finally recognizing him. "You shouldn't have run away, Silver. Too late for that now, though. Ariodos, sludge bomb."

"I have something I'd like to say", Lance said suddenly, stopping Ariodos in its tracks. 

"Well, what is it?" Asked the Masked Man. 

Lance sighed, as though about to say something painful. Then Silver noticed the pokemon standing behind the Masked Man. "Turn around."

Lance smiled grimly as the man spun around, just in time to get hit with a hyper beam.

"When did you release your Dragonite?" Silver asked, amazed. 

"I didn't", Lance replied. Dragonite used dragon claw to slice through the net, giving the Masked Man and his Ariados enough time to get their wits about them again. 

"I don't- " Silver began, but stopped when he saw Dragonite transform back into Blue's Ditto. "Oh."

Lance released his real Dragonite, which promptly ko'd Ariados. "Guard him", Lance told Dragonite, gesturing toward the Masked Man. 

"Come on", he said, and Silver followed Lance down the hallway. 

They were almost there. Soon, Lance could rescue Yellow and her friends. Soon, Lance and Yellow would be together again.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really need chapter names. I'm writing in the chapter number as the name to remind myself to name these. I know it shows up as Chapter 1: Chapter 1, but I'm too sleepy to care.

"I'm sorry", Silver said, "I should have believed you before."

"It's not your fault", Lance replied, "Let's just go find Yellow and the others."

As the two of them reached an intersection, Lance told Silver to head one way, while he went the other. 

 

 

Silver walked quietly, but even so, his footsteps echoed against the walls and ceiling. He soon came to a panel in the wall. A key pad was next to it. He tried to open it with his pokemon, but they just weren't strong enough. 

Suddenly, a blast of white shot into the door, cracking it. "Dragonite?" Silver asked, turning to see the large orange dragon. The pokemon shook its head. "Oh. . . Ditty?" Dragonite nodded at this, then sent another hyper beam at the door. 

Combined with the power of Silver's pokemon, Ditty was able to blast the door into a pile of rubble. 

"Green?" Asked Silver, rushing over to the still form in the corner. "Are you okay?" 

He wasn't moving, but Green was breathing. Silver sighed in relief. Ditty flowed out of its Dragonite shape, and morphed into a Chansy, the favored pokemon used by nurses and doctors in Kanto and Johto. 

Ditty reached down and released some sort of energy into Green's chest. Green coughed, and sat up, looking around. 

"Where am I?" He asked. "No, wait. . . I remember now. What are you doing here, Silver?"

"Rescuing you", he replied, "Now come on- we still have to find Blue, Red, and Yellow. And your pokemon."

 

 

Lance had Aerodactyl blast through another door, but like the last three, the room was empty. He growled in frustration, slamming his fist into the wall. 

He didn't mind the pain that ensued- all he cared about now was finding Yellow. 

A few doors later, Lance and Aerodactyl burst into yet another room- but this one wasn't empty. There was a note taped to the wall, next to some suspicious looking cracks. 

You know the place, traitor. Better hurry or she's dead. And don't forget Agatha. 

-Lorelei

 

 

Lance and Dragonite soared toward Cerise Island. Silver, Green, Red, and Blue were watching the Masked Man. Agatha dangled from Dragonite's sharp claws, tied up- Lance wasn't taking any chances with her, even though she was old. 

Soon, he thought. Very soon, he would get his revenge. Dragonite landed next to the great volcanic crater in the center of the island. 

At first, Lance didn't see anyone, but when he looked into the crater, two figures were on a small spit of rock overlooking the magma. One of them was clearly tied up. Yellow, Lance figured. Then one of the figures turned to face him, waved- and shoved the other off the spit, into the crater. 

 

 

As an alarm started ringing, Lorelei stopped. She looked down at a small screen she pulled out pf her pocket, and immediately grabbed Yellow's arm. 

"Come on!" She said, roughly pushing Yellow out the door. 

"Why?" Asked Yellow, "What's going on?"

"We're leaving, that's what!" Lorelei said, roughly tying Yellow's hands behind her back. She wrote a quick note, taped it to the wall, and released a Scarmory, which grabbed Yellow around the waist before taking off with Lorelei on its back. 

The Scarmory carried them to down a hidden passage to the surface. Yellow was uncomfortable in its sharp talons, and got jolted around as the pokemon flew. 

Soon enough, they landed. Yellow realized that she had actually fallen asleep during their flight. She then looked around her, and was horrified to find herself back on Cerise Island. 

Not long after they had arrived on the island, a very familiar Dragonite flew up, landing on the other side of the crater. 

"Lance!" cried Yellow. She'd known he would come for her. She'd just known it! 

He looked around him, too far away to hear her. Finally, he seemed to have spotted them. Lorelei waved mockingly- and pushed Yellow into the volcano. 

Lance was too far away to save her. Lorelei clearly wasn't going to help. Yellow herself was tied up, unable to do anything. She wouldn't be saved this time. Yellow was going to die. 

 

 

"Yellow!" Lance screamed. He was already standing on Dragonite's back. Dragonite zoomed toward her, but Lance knew he wouldn't make it in time. 

As Lance got closer, he launched himself off Dragonite's back, grabbing Yellow around the waist. His momentum carried them into the edge of the crater, and Lance twisted around midair to absorb the impact of slamming into the sheer rock wall. 

Lance's free hand scrabbled for a hold in the rock, but there was none. It was hopeless. After everything he had done to save Yellow, she would still die. But at least now they would die together. 

"Yellow. . . " Lance whispered in her ear. "I love you." 

Then, finally, his hand found a hold. Lance's fingers started to slip, but he didn't let go. The rock began crumbling under their combined weight, but Lance still didn't let go. Excruciating pain built in his arm, and finally, the rock broke. 

Lance and Yellow fell again- strait onto Dragonite's back. The large dragon flew along the inside of the crater, with the two safely on its back, until it had lost enough speed to fly out of the volcano. Swooping down to grasp Lorelei in its claws, Dragonite took off for Blackthorn City. 

Lance had Aerodactyl deal with Skarmory, then he and Yellow, safe at last, continued toward Blackthorn. 

As Dragonite landed in front of the Blackthorn gym, Lance jumped down from its back. Silver, Blue, Red, and Green had already arrived, and were waiting for them outside of the gym. 

"Yellow!" Cried Blue happily, running up to hug her friend, whom Lance had untied on the way there. She then turned to Lance. "Thank you", she said gratefully to him. 

Lance, surprised, glanced to Silver, who nodded at him. Silver must have told them, Lance thought. 

Silver, Red, and Green then left to put Lorelei in the Dragon Den jail along with Agatha and the Masked Man. Blue went to help Clair with dinner, and Lance and Yellow were alone together. 

"Do you. . . really. . . " Yellow began, but couldn't seem to finish. Lance knew what she was referring to, though.

"Yes", he said softly. "I love you, Yellow." 

Her cheeks blushed a vibrant red, and she leaned forward. . . and kissed him again. Lance felt her soft lips on his, and the two of them stayed like that until Clair came outside to tell them the food was ready. 

 

 

Yellow fell asleep on Lance's shoulder while everyone was eating. Clair decided that right then would be the perfect opportunity to tell them that there weren't enough rooms for everyone, so someone would have to share a room. 

Red started to volunteer himself and Green, but Blue nudged him, and shook her head. He followed her gaze to Lance and Yellow, and his mouth formed an 'oh'. 

Lance picked Yellow up carefully, and carried her in his arms, gently pushing open the door to his room. He set her on the bed, sitting down next to her. 

At last, they were safe. Safe and together. Nothing could tear them apart now. Lance lay down, wrapping his arms around Yellow's waist. She relaxed in his grip, and he was soon asleep next to her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a few more to copy over, then I can sleep! I'm so happy my friend introduced me to Ao3. I've basically immersed myself in beautiful fanfic by this point. Please let me know what you think of Chapter 11!

Yellow stirred, and tried to sit up, but found Lance in the way. He had wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Lance. . . " She muttered sleepily. She curled up against him, sighing happily, and pulled his arms tighter around herself.

Lance smiled. With her back to him, Yellow couldn't see that he was already awake. He pulled her closer, resting his chin on the top of her head, and felt her squeak in his arms, realizing that he was awake.

"Do you want to see how breakfast is coming?" Lance asked Yellow.

"No", she replied, turning over in his arms so she was facing him. "I want to stay right here." She kissed his cheek softly, and Lance smiled down at her. He ran a hand through her hair, for once out of its customary ponytail, marveling at its softness.

She closed her eyes as he did so, savoring his touch. He then traced her jawline, tilting her chin up and kissing her on the lips.

She whimpered quietly at the feeling, and opened her eyes to stare at his face. How had she never noticed just how beautiful his amber eyes were before now? She took both hands and caressed his face. His jaw was so sturdy, so strong.

Yellow never wanted to leave his side. She just wanted to stay right here for forever. "I love you", she informed Lance, in case there was any doubt. In case there was ever any doubt.

"I know", he replied, then kissed her again. He kissed her neck, but she still had her smock on, and it interfered with the kiss. He removed her belt, then she sighed as he started working on the back of her smock, and it was soon off, leaving her in a black turtle neck and blue pants.

Lance kissed her neck again, surprisingly softly, and worked his way from her neck up to her mouth once more. Yellow cupped her hands around Lance's face as he kissed her. She would be perfectly happy if they never left this room. Unfortunately, Clair wasn't going to let that happen. 

"Hey, are you two ever going to come to breakfast?" Demanded Clair, pushing the door open. When she saw Lance and Yellow kissing, her eyes widened. "Oh. . . carry on, I'll just, ah, put some aside for you. . . well, bye." She closed the door quickly. 

Yellow blushed deeply, and started to pull away, but Lance hung onto her. 

"You heard her. She'll save us some. Now, where were we. . . ?" He went after her neck again, but this time, her turtle neck got in the way. She saw the look he was giving it, and shook her head. "Too soon?" he asked. She nodded, and kissed him one last time before getting up. 

 

 

As Lance and Yellow entered the dining room, Clair tried to pretend nothing had happened. 

"Oh, you two are here early. . . I mean, um, I didn't expect to see you up so soon", She said, nervously trying to hide the blush on her cheeks that blossomed at the memory of walking in on them.

Lance smirked at his cousin's poor attempt at subtlety. "Clair, you know we're both morning people. We even slept in." 

"Right, I, um, must have forgotten."

Lance opened his mouth to say something else, but Clair beat him to it. 

"Right, well, do you two want breakfast? Great! I'll go get you some."

Yellow tried to smother a giggle, and Lance smiled at her. Yellow was so cute when she did that.

The two of them sat down at the table, and the others traded confused looks over the exchange. Lance casually slung his arm over Yellow's shoulders, and smiled again as she blushed at him. Blue looked on knowingly, while Red, oblivious as always, just went back to eating.

When they had all finished eating, Red posed the question they had all been thinking: "So what now?" 

Clair answered immediately. "First, we drop off Agatha, Lorelei, and the Masked Man with the police. I figure Green and Blue can give a full report to them on that. Meanwhile, Red and Silver can go talk to the others back at Pallet Town. I'll go see if those three had anyone else trapped at their base, and Lance and Yellow can, um, hold down the fort here. Okay?"

"That's quite the plan", said Blue. 

"Of course it is! I was stuck here with nothing else to do while you all got to do all the fun, exciting stuff. What else did I have to do?" Clair said. 

"My word for it wouldn't exactly be 'fun'", Red muttered. He had been trapped in the Masked Man's lair the longest of any of them. Recently, that is, because both Blue and Silver had been kidnapped as children, and had escaped together. 

"I notice Yellow and I get the boring job this time", remarked Lance. 

He realized that before, he had been dead- set on killing Agatha and Lorelei in revenge, but now. . . something had changed. He was alright with Blue and Green taking them to the police. Jail may not be as bad as they deserved, but at least now they wouldn't be able to hurt anyone again. And now Yellow would be happier, too. That was what mattered most to Lance. 

"Yeah, sorry about that", said Clair. She shot him a look that clearly told him to take advantage of their time alone, and then she and the others prepared to leave. 

Soon, everyone except Lance and Yellow were gone. Lance walked up behind Yellow, and placed his chin on top of her head, sliding his arms around her. 

"What do you want to do now?" He asked her. Yellow grinned. Now that everyone had left, she could do something she'd been wanting to do for a long time. 

"Let's go get ice cream", she responded happily.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does getting ice cream together count as a date? I dunno. It's okay because I think they'll have a few of those soon ;)   
> Also, what do you think of some more mellow chapters? I don't have much action in the next few (sorry!) but don't worry, it heats up again.

Later that day, the others still hadn't returned, so Yellow started sorting through Clair's mail absentmindedly. She put another add for poke balls in the trash pile, but the next flier caught her attention. 

"Hey, Lance", she called, "you should see this."

Lance walked over and looked at the flier over Yellow's shoulder. 

"You think I should be the champion?" He asked. Yellow nodded at him over her shoulder. 

"You're perfect for the job", she told him. 

"I don't know if I have the time. . . "

"You'd only have to come to the League a few times a year. Red's the Kanto champion, and he still has lots of time to do everything else he wants to."

"You really want me to do this."

"Well. . . yes", Yellow said, flushing. "I think you could have a lot of fun as champion."

"Fun. . . " said Lance, considering. "Alright. I guess I'll do it."

"Great!" said Yellow, smiling. "There's a tournament in a little over a week. The winner is the new champion. Since you'll be entering, and Agatha and Lorelei are in prison now, the next three runner ups will fill in as the new members for the Elite Four."

Clair, with her impeccable timing, chose that moment to return. 

"Who's doing what now?" she asked, poking her head in through the door. 

"Lance is going to be the champion", Yellow announced happily. 

"I've been roped into entering a tournament to determine who the new Johto champion will be", Lance clarified for her. 

"That's awesome!" said Clair. "I bet you'll have a lot of fun as champion."

"Told you so", Yellow snorted. 

Green and Blue walked in just then, and Lance spoke up before Yellow and Clair could tell them about him trying out for champion. 

"I think Yellow and I should get going now", he said. "It's a long flight back to Viridian City." Yellow agreed, and after some short farewells, the two of them were off. 

 

 

Dragonite landed next to Yellow's house, and Lance instantly knew something was wrong. First off, the lights were on. He glanced back at Yellow, only to see that she was asleep. Typical. 

He gently shook her awake, and she rubbed her eyes. 

"There's someone in your house", Lance informed her. Suddenly, a man holding a fishing rod menacingly burst out of the house. 

"Uncle Wilton!" Yellow called. 

"Yellow! Get away from him! That's Lance!" Uncle Wilton cried, trying unsuccessfully to hit Lance with his fishing rod. 

"No, Uncle Wilton, stop!" Yellow said, grabbing her uncle's arm to make him stop attacking Lance. Once her uncle had calmed down enough, Yellow made everyone go inside and sit down. 

"Uncle Wilton", she said, "This is Lance. He's saved my life two- no, three times recently. He is completely reformed, and there's no reason to hit him with your fishing rod. Also, his house got hit by a tree, so he's staying with us until it's fixed. Lance, this is my uncle, Wilton. He's usually really nice. . . " 

"I can take a hint", Uncle Wilton said. "Sorry about that, Lance." He didn't look very sorry, though. Yellow thought it might take some time for him to get used to Lance. 

"That's okay", said Lance, even though it wasn't. He just didn't want to fight with Yellow's uncle. "Glad to meet you."

Uncle Wilton spent dinner glowering distrustfully across the table at Lance. Yellow tried to start a conversation, but eventually she gave up. Lance ate quickly, then slipped out to 'train his pokemon', although he really just wanted to get away from the tense atmosphere. After Uncle Wilton went upstairs, Yellow stepped outside to check on Lance. 

Lance was preparing to take off on Dragonite. 

"Where are you going?" Yellow asked him.

"Training", was all he responded. "I'll be back later."

"Okay. I'll see you then, I guess. . . " she responded.

"Bye." Lance said. He felt uncomfortable with Yellow's uncle in the house, and wanted to make sure he was asleep when Lance came back so they wouldn't have another staring match like over dinner. 

 

 

Lance spent the next few days training non-stop, and when Uncle Wilton finally left, Yellow joined him. 

Lance was practicing hard, but he couldn't seem to get much better with his current training regime, so he and Yellow left for a secret cave he had discovered long ago. 

"Where are we going?" asked Yellow as they flew over what appeared to be Johto together. 

"The Whirl Islands", Lance replied.

"Lance. . . " began Yellow.

"Hm?"

"You've just been kind of closed off recently. Are you alright?"

"Sorry. I'm really focused on this tournament. I guess you and Clair were right. This is good for me."

Yellow smiled. Lance had seemed pretty stressed out lately, but that would explain it. They would get through this together. Lance would become champion, and everything would be all right. 

Yellow started to drift off to sleep, happily clinging to Lance's waist so she wouldn't fall. 

"Oh no, you don't", Lance teased. "No falling asleep on my watch."

Yellow felt Dragonite dive, but she knew Lance wouldn't let them crash. He would catch them. 

Any minute now. . . 

A second more. . . 

Why wasn't he pulling up?

Yellow's eyes flew open- just as they swooped up, mere feet from colliding with the ground. She let out her breath, relieved. Adrenaline pounded in her ears, and she could hear her heart beat loudly. 

"I knew you would pull up", she stated with more certainty than she felt. 

Lance smirked as they gained altitude. . . and dove again. 

"I'm not worried", Yellow assured him. A few seconds passed. "Still not worried."

"Hold your breath", Lance said.

"Wait. . . what?" Yellow had just enough time to ask, before they broke through the surface of the ocean. 

They plunged down, and then flew up again almost immediately. Lance twisted around to see Yellow glowering at him. Water dripped from her soaked hair and clothes. He smirked at her, and kissed her unexpectedly. She hesitated briefly before returning the kiss. God, she loved him.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I like Uncle Wilton. He'll show up again eventually, I'm sure. Y'all might think I have this all planned out, but really, I've got a very very basic point A, then a super blurry point B in mind, and I literally just sit here and make shit up. Not kidding.

Lance was back at his old base. This was where he'd hid when training got too rough, when his grandfather was displeased with him (which had been depressingly often at first), and later, where he had come to train. Now Yellow was here with him. 

Lance helped her through a rough spot on the underground path leading to the main training area, even through she could have managed it by herself. 

When the two of them got to the main cavern, Lance turned to see Yellow staring around her. 

"It's. . . amazing", she told him. The huge cave had rough, craggy walls, which Lance had painted targets on. Years of training here had blasted holes in the walls on and around the targets. Tree stumps wrapped in frayed rope adorned one corner of the cave, and bags of sand hung from the ceiling, along with large, thick rings, and knotted ropes. 

He smirked. "It's a mess." Yellow shook her head, not sure of how to convey her feelings to him. 

"Maybe, but the atmosphere is so hard core, and it's clear you do so much training here. That's what makes it so awesome", she said. 

A corner of Lance's mouth lifted slightly. He was glad that Yellow felt that way. "Let's get started."

 

 

"I don't think I can do it. . . " Yellow said, looking with trepidation upon the long, knotted rope descending from the ceiling. She could barely reach the first knot, and the second looked so far away. . . 

"Both you and your pokemon need to train for you to get any better", Lance said. His pokemon and her's were practicing accuracy and agility on the other side of the cave. He himself was hanging easily from a different rope. 

"Okay. . . " Yellow said nervously. She jumped up, caught the first knot, and slipped, landing heavily on her back. "Ow", she complained. 

"Try again. You can't be afraid to fall, or else you will", Lance encouraged. 

Yellow jumped again, and this time, her grip was firm. 

"Good", praised Lance, "now work your way up to the next one."

She reached up painfully, grasping the second knot, and heaving her body up after her so that she could straddle the rope and put her feet on the first knot. She pushed hard, but her feet slipped and she fell again, dangling by her arms. 

"Take it easy. Don't rush to the next one, but remember to keep a firm grip on the rope while you're moving up", Lance said. He was now hanging upside down, having found a loop in the rope to put his leg through. He appeared to be doing hard core sit-ups, going directly upside down, then pulling himself up to touch the ceiling, and going back down again. 

Yellow grunted in response, then pushed her feet onto the bottom knot again. She eased her weight onto her feet, stretching up to reach the next knot. She pulled her legs up after her, straddling the rope to keep some of her weight off her hands, then started all over again. 

Yellow had made it about halfway up the rope when she took one hand off to wipe off the sweat so she could grip the rope better. That was all it took. Her feet slipped with the extra strain on them, and the sudden yank on her remaining hand tore it right off the rope. 

She was falling again. All the memories of her time in the Masked Man's lair came rushing back, faster and harder than the ground rushing up at her. 

"Yellow!" came Lance's voice. She snapped out of it. No way was she dying like this. There was too much to live for! She stretched out, trying to grab her rope again, but it was too far away, and she couldn't. 

Everything was moving so fast, and it had been barely a second since she fell, but time seemed slow for some reason. She was falling, and then. . . she wasn't. Something had stopped her fall. 

She opened her eyes to see Lance holding onto her rope with one hand, and her wrist with the other. 

"I just can't stop saving you", Lance said. Yellow blushed, wrapping her other hand around Lance's wrist to strengthen the grip. By this time, their pokemon had reached the scene, and Aerodactyl grabbed the two of them, carefully setting them on the ground, before flapping a few feet away to give them some space. 

"Thanks, Aerodactyl", Lance said. His pokemon, clearly not used to much praise, fluffed out its wings happily. Yellow laughed at its proud expression before turning to Lance. 

"You saved me. Again. Thank you", she said. 

"I couldn't just let you fall. I'm the one that made you climb that rope", he said. 

"Yes, and I'm glad you did. I need to have more confidence in myself", Yellow told him. Lance seemed to be acting slightly strange. He kept glancing down at. . . her lips? She glanced at his, and that was all the time it took before they were kissing. 

 

 

Much later, they separated. Lance griped her shoulders gently, and looked deep into her eyes. 

"No more falling", he said. She couldn't keep from laughing, and it helped to ease the pent-up tension in her chest. 

Yellow tried again, and this time, Aerodactyl made sure to keep a close eye on her. She made it to the top, and Lance climbed up after her. 

He pushed on the ceiling, and a large chunk of flat rock lifted up so he and Yellow could crawl through the opening. Above them, stars flecked the velvety, midnight sky. The sun was setting in the distance, lighting up Yellow's dark gold eyes. 

"Is this why you wanted me to climb that rope?" she asked him. He nodded, sitting back on a patch of grass. Yellow settled in beside him, staring around at the rugged, strangely pretty island they were on. "It's so beautiful here."

Yellow squeaked as she felt Lance's hands around her waist. He lifted her gently, setting her between his legs, and then draped his cloak over both of them. 

"It's chilly tonight", he told her, but they both knew that it wasn't, not really. 

A feeling tensed along her spine, a beautiful feeling. She'd felt it before, but only with Lance. Leaning back on him, Yellow closed her eyes and sighed contentedly. 

Lance set his chin on her head, closing his eyes, too. She was his Yellow, and he wouldn't let anything happen to her. He realized that was the first time he had thought of Yellow as 'his' before, but it just seemed to fit. 

They were made for each other. Nothing could tear them apart now.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters after this, then updates might start coming slower. Sorry! Let me know what your favorite chapter is. Mine is either 13 or 14. They're both pretty relaxed, though.

Yellow knew she couldn't run much farther, but she pushed herself, knowing that today was their last day at the Whirl Islands. 

She and Lance were racing across the island, up steep slopes, through jagged passes, and down slippery, treacherous hill sides. 

Lance always stayed just a few feet in front of her, silently urging her to go faster, to catch up with him. 

Feeling the burning strain of her legs eat away at her remaining strength, Yellow propelled herself forward, breaking into a sprint. Lance smirked at her as she caught up to him and he matched her pace before pulling ahead of her once more. 

"Need a break?" he asked as her breathing became strained and ragged. She shook her head no, and used the distraction to catch up to him.

The two of them ran for a few more minutes, until Yellow's legs couldn't take it anymore. Finally, she slowed, letting herself feel the pain. It felt good. 

She was stronger than she'd ever been in her life, and the pain she was feeling now was a testament to her hard work and perseverance. 

Lance, noticing that she had dropped behind, slowed down, settling into an easy jog beside her. 

"Now do you want to take a break?" he asked. 

"Yes", she replied, surprising him, "but I'm not going to."

Lance smirked again. "Let's see how long that lasts", he said, "now it's time for some push-ups."

Yellow groaned, getting into position stiffly. 

"One", Lance said, and they both went down, and back up again. "Two."

 

 

When the two of them finally stopped for lunch, Yellow lay down on the ground, exhausted. 

She started to get up to go inside and make lunch, but Lance scooped her up, carrying her in his arms. 

He carried her all the way to the small cooking cave, setting her gently on a counter made of wooden boards. 

"I love you", Lance said, gazing in her eyes. 

She smiled back, whispering, "I love you, too."

Lance walked down the earthen steps to the room's tiny cellar. He picked up two pre-made sandwiches and a few bags of pokemon food, calling all the pokemon to lunch mentally while heading back up to the kitchen. 

Yellow was still lying on the counter when Lance got back. She seemed to be falling asleep, so Lance put all the food down on a different counter and walked over to her. 

"No falling asleep, now", Lance whispered in her ear as he leaned over her, putting his arms on either side of her. "I have plans for us, you know. Big plans. Soon as lunch is over we can get started."

"P-plans?" Yellow squeaked, blushing. 

"First. . . " Lance began, leaning down even closer. Yellow's soft breathing tickled his neck as he leaned over her. "We might do some push-ups."

Yellow laughed, but Lance wasn't done. "Then we might work with the pokemon individually. Help isolate something everyone needs to work on." 

"And then?" asked Yellow.

Lance pressed his lips to hers, and Yellow wrapped her arms around his back, pulling him into her. When they pulled apart, Lance kept his forehead on hers. 

"I honestly hadn't gotten that far yet", he admitted. Yellow felt butterflies in her stomach as he leaned down and kissed her again. She blushed as she realized Chuchu and Dragonite were watching them from the doorway. 

Hungry. . . complained Chuchu. 

Lance has a girlfriend, Dragonite said with a mischievous look in its eyes.

Dragonite and Chuchu had grown quite close over the past week, and were almost inseperable now. Even when Dragonite was practicing flying, the little yellow pokemon would ride on its back, offering encouragement. 

"Unlike you, I'm actually quite good with the ladies", Lance told Dragonite. 

What ladies? We both know Yellow's the only girlfriend you've ever had, Dragonite pointed out.

"And you've never had any", Lance replied. He was still leaning over Yellow, and he went back to staring at her after he was done burning his Dragonite. Yellow laughed at their conversation. Both Yellow and Lance had the gift of being able to read pokemon minds, as well as heal pokemon. It came in handy during a battle, that was for sure. 

 

 

After lunch, Lance and Yellow trained some more, eventually stopping to watch the sunset together. This was definitely Lance's favorite part of the day. Or maybe it was having lunch together. Or waking up to see Yellow's beautiful face. Or it might have been watching the sunrise together. . . 

Yellow caught him staring at her and blushed. "What is it?" she asked. 

"You're so beautiful. . . " he replied, mesmerized. Yellow smiled at him and rested her head on his shoulder, yawning. "Ready for bed?" he asked her. 

"Yeah. . . I'm so sore", Yellow said. Lance stood, and helped Yellow to her feet. She groaned, rubbing her neck. "Sorry. Just. . . long day."

"Here", Lance said. He picked her up again, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her inside. 

Lance's cave only had one bed, so he had offered to sleep on the floor at first, but Yellow hadn't let him, so instead they shared the bed. Lance put Yellow down on it now, climbing in after her and pulling the covers over both of them. He thought Yellow looked a little cold, so he put his arms around her to warm her up. 

Yellow smiled, snuggling into him. Tomorrow was the tournament, but tonight they could just be themselves. Lance inhaled the scent of her hair, which was still soft, even after days of no showering. He knew he probably smelled bad, but Yellow didn't. She was always perfect. 

His Yellow. . . he was never going to let go of her. He vowed to be there for her whenever she needed him. Because he loved her.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm listening to some pretty weird songs right now. That corner of the internet. Eek! I really like Bruises and Bitemarks by Good with Grenades, though! And What Have You Done by Within Temptation. So good! Those both managed to get into the cringy line up I'm subjecting my ears to now. Not sure how, cuz these songs are beautiful, but I'm not complaining!

It hadn't been long since Lance had last visited the Pokemon League, but it seemed so different now. Before, it had been drab and dull, decorated by Lorelei with dark walls, no electricity, and none of the comfortable couches the league now sported. He assumed Bruno had hired someone to redecorate, and Lance was grateful for it. 

The outside was the same weathered stone as it had been three years ago, when Lance had first come here. 

 

The wind whistled outside, biting at the young boy's face. He was only twelve, but he looked more like sixteen, with dark, cold eyes, and a weathered face. He looked up at the tall spirals of the Pokemon League, then lifted the iron knocker. Bruno met him at the door. 

"Your grandfather told us you'd be coming. We'll need to test you of course", Bruno had said once Lance introduced himself. 

"Of course. A battle?" he said. 

"Once you're rested. I'll show you to a room where you can rest up after your journey."

Lance had found himself in a rather inhospitable room, with no furniture other than a rough wooden platform. That suited him fine, however. Compared to his room, this was luxury. 

After a time, Bruno returned, Agatha and Lorelei in tow. 

"I'm ready", Lance said. 

"Then let's begin", Bruno said. 

He'd beaten all of them, of course. They had been no match for Dragonite and his other pokemon. That was when they named him leader of the Elite Four. 

Three years later, he met Yellow, and his life had changed drastically. He still didn't know how he had lived without her. 

Yellow now tapped his shoulder, snapping him out of his memories. 

"Are you okay?" she asked. He nodded, put his arm casually around her shoulder as they walked. 

Yellow waved as she saw Blue, running to her friend's side excitedly. 

"Red and Green are here, too", Blue told her as Lance walked over at a more sedate pace. "So are Clair and Silver."

"Are they all here. . . to watch me?" Lance wondered out loud. 

"Of course!" Yellow said. "They care about you, Lance."

"Why? After all I did, why would they care about me?" he muttered. 

Yellow looked into his eyes, and Lance saw the truth written in hers. "You changed. You're not the same person that did those things before. Now you're someone else. Someone I'm in love with", she said. She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek. "Now come on or we'll miss registration."

Blue wiggled her eyebrows at Yellow, and Lance couldn't help but chuckle as Yellow blushed. 

After registering, Lance sat down on one of the new couches to wait. Yellow settled herself beside him, and the two of them shared a companionable silence until the others showed up. 

"There's a lot of people here. Guess that means you'll have some competition, huh, Lance?" Red commented. 

"I guess so", he replied, still surprised at the openness everyone showed around him. 

A voice came on over the speakers newly installed around the league, telling them that the tournament was about to start. Yellow hugged Lance, wishing him good luck, before he left to go get ready. 

 

 

A flock of pidgy were released into the stadium, circling high over the heads of the lined up contestants, before flying free through the open roof made up of strategically balanced panes of glass. The crowd was awed, but Yellow had eyes for only one person in the huge stadium. 

She stood up, waving at Lance, and his eyes met hers. He smiled at her, and she felt her heart melt. Lance only ever smiled at her, and for some reason, knowing that she was the only one who could make him smile made her happy. 

A huge flat screen tv hung on the wall, and it displayed the pairings. Lance was going first, paired against a serious looking man with half-moon glasses. 

Lance won easily, his Dragonite defeating all of the opposing pokemon. The first matches were three on three, and after the first round, they would become full battles with all six pokemon participating. 

In the next round, Lance repeated his easy victory, hardly getting excited. He wondered if becoming the champion really would be as difficult as everyone had made it sound. He hadn't even bothered to heal Dragonite yet, let alone switch out. 

Sitting on a bench waiting for his next match, Lance sighed. Yellow sat down next to him. 

"I think this was a bad idea", Lance said. 

"Is this because of how easy everyone's been to beat?" she said. Yellow knew him too well. 

Lance nodded. 

"I think that's going to change", Yellow told him, gesturing toward the matchups screen. Lance's eyes widened in surprise as he saw his face next to Green's on the board. "You weren't watching the other matches, were you? Green decided to compete last minute. He said he couldn't let you win without at least one decent fight."

"Huh", Lance said, musing. 

"There are going to be stronger opponents, too. Once you're champion, I mean", Yellow assured him. "Everyone will have to go through the Elite Four, and eight gym leaders to reach you. Anyone with eight gym badges was allowed to compete in this tournament due to the unusual circumstances."

"Thank you", Lance said, leaning in close and whispering it in her ear. 

"F-for what?" she asked. She seemed a little flustered at his public display of affection. 

"Everything. But mainly your confidence. I'm sure now that I'll win, but I'm also sure I'll have fun doing it." 

"Oh", she breathed. "You're welcome." 

Lance leaned closer, his lips brushing against her neck before he pulled away, leaning his forehead on hers. "I guess I owe you one", he told her. 

"You're the one who keeps saving me! I think I owe you, not the other way around", Yellow replied. 

"I know how you can repay me, if that's the way you feel."

Yellow blushed deeply, wondering what it could be. 

"Yellow De Viridian Grove. . . " Lance said, testing out the name. He'd never called her by her full name before, he realized. "Would you do me the honor of accompanying me on a date?"

Yellow somehow managed to blush deeper. "Y-yes, of course", she stammered. What was this weird feeling in her heart? And why did it only happen when she was around Lance? She didn't have any time to ponder these questions, however, as Lance leaned in and kissed her.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright, last chapter before my nap. Enjoy!!  
> Haha, psyche. I can't stop publishing. I have like two more after this, and a mostly finished one that I'll probably wrap up before I stop. They need to be edited first, though. *SIGH* I feel like singing that one song from Annie. It's a hard knock life for me- I say, laying on the couch eating strawberry jello ;P

Yellow was leaning against the wall between rounds, waiting for Lance. The semi- finals were next, and Lance would be in the second match, against Green. 

"Are you lonely?" someone asked. Yellow whirled around to find herself facing a stranger. He wasn't one of the competitors, and she'd never seen him before. 

"Who are you?" she asked. 

"It doesn't matter", he replied. 

Yellow, sensing trouble, started backing away slowly, desperate to get away from this weird stranger. 

"Where are you going?" he asked, grasping her wrist, "We need to talk, Yellow."

"How do you know my name? Let go!" Yellow cried. 

"You're coming with me", he said, completely disregarding her frantic questions. 

"Let go of me!" she cried, yanking uselessly at his grip. 

"Hey!" called a voice. "You heard her! Let her go!"

Yellow turned to see Lance. He tackled the strange man, causing him to release his grasp on Yellow. She wanted to help Lance, but wasn't sure what she could do, so she started yelling for help. 

Unfortunately, the only help that came was in the form of some strange people wearing white shirts with red 'R's on them, and they weren't there to help Lance and Yellow. They were there to help the man from before. 

"Who are you?" Yellow demanded as he reached for her again. The others were keeping Lance busy. 

"My name is Proton. As one of the three remaining executives, I represent Team Rocket."

"Why are you here?" Yellow cried, backing up rapidly. 

"For you. We need revenge on Red, and assurance that he won't come after us once we've officially reformed. Since Red is obviously too difficult to take down on an even field, we'll offer him a trade; the life of his friend versus his own freedom. He'll have to come with us."

Yellow ran into the wall and realized that she was defenseless. Her pokemon were with Blue right now, as she'd wanted to be alone and not accidentally share her thoughts while she was meeting Lance. 

I have to help Lance, she thought. But I need to warn Red, too. And if I don't get away from Proton soon, I'll be the one needing saving! 

"We can do this the hard way or the easy way, Yellow. What will it be?" Proton said. He was closing in, casually throwing a pokeball into the air and catching it again. 

"I'm never going with you", Yellow growled. 

"There's that spunk you're so famous for. It can't help you now, though."

Yellow glared at him, desperately searching for a way out of her predicament. 

Suddenly, Dragonite was there. It picked Yellow up, hovering over the heads of the Team Rocket members. Yellow remembered Red telling her about Team Rocket now. He had disbanded them a while ago, shortly after they all fought Lance. Apparently, they had decided to reform. Big mistake. 

"There's too many of them. I've only got Dragonite with me, so I won't be able to take them all on", Lance said from Dragonite's back. "We'll have to pull out."

"We need to warn the others, too", Yellow said.

"Right. Hold on tight!" 

Dragonite flew at breakneck speeds through the hallways into the main stadium, where the next match was being set up. Once Lance and Yellow had explained the predicament they were in, the arena was evacuated, and Officer Jenny dispatched security to search for Team Rocket. 

After retrieving their pokemon, Lance and Yellow joined the search, but Team Rocket had disappeared by this point. Once the commotion had settled down completely, it was almost sunset, but the match was still scheduled for that day. 

"Good luck!" Yellow told Lance as he prepared to face Green. "I know you can do it."

He pulled her against him, holding her tightly before replying. "Thank you", he said simply. 

 

 

"The final match up of the day is gym leader Green against Lance of the Elite Four!" the announcer said animatedly. 'This battle is sure to have some real heat, as each of the competitors are highly skilled trainers."

The first pokemon out were Green's Charizard against Lance's Salamence. Charizard managed to win, but it was close. Lance brought out Dragonite early, and was able to take down half of Green's team before Dragonite finally fainted. 

Next came Lance's Dragonair (one of them), and Green's Scizor. Dragonair fainted, and was replaced with Aerodactyl, who took down Scizor before fainting in its battle against Rhyperior. 

The battle was now two on two, but Rhyperior was able to take down one of Lance's remaining pokemon, making the battle a little more even. Lance's final pokemon was Gyarados, one of the strongest pokemon he had. Yellow had noticed Lance getting more and more dejected as the previous opponents all went by so quickly, but in this battle, he was almost smiling. 

Lance started actually having fun. He ordered Gyarados to use aqua tail to send back Rhyperior's rock slide. A hydro pump took the huge rock type down, and Green's final pokemon, Arcanine, was next. 

"You ready for this, Arcanine? Let's give it everything we've got", Green asked it. It growled in response, preparing for a heated battle. 

"Come on, Gyarados. Show them your true power!" urged Lance, to which his pokemon responded heartily. 

"Fire blast!"

"Hydro pump!"

The two trainers commanded simultaneously. The attacks clashed, and produced a huge cloud of steam which obscured the battlefield for a few tense moments. In that time, Gyarados was able to wrap itself around Arcanine, incapacitating the powerful fire-type. 

As the steam cleared, Green ordered Arcanine to use thunder fang, and it was able to wriggle out of the paralyzed water serpent's grasp after that. Things weren't looking good for Lance, but he had Gyarados use dragon dance to increase its attack, then use aqua tail to trip Arcanine. 

Another aqua tail finished the battle, and the stadium was silent for the span of a few seconds. All at once, the shocked and awed crowd started cheering. Lance looked around, realizing that they were cheering for him. His gaze met Yellow's, and she ran toward him, racing across the battle field to throw herself into his arms. 

He embraced her happily, and she was grinning when they pulled apart a little. 

"I knew you could do it", she stated confidently. 

"Thank you. Without your support, I wouldn't even be here", Lance said. 

"You're welcome", she said. The two of them kissed, right there in front of everyone, and Yellow was too caught up in it to be embarrassed at all the people watching them until the crowd's collective 'Aaaaw' reached her ears. Even then, she still managed to ignore them all.


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Helloooo amazing readers!!! Expect many updates this weekend! I'm rockin' out to my jam right now, so I am totally in the zone. I'll try to write a lot now because I have finals coming up, and won't be able to update for a while. Please enjoy the chapter!

The next few competitors were nowhere near as good as Green, and Lance defeated them all with ease, but this time Yellow noticed a spark of excitement in his eyes that wasn't there before. 

At the awards ceremony, Green ended being chosen as one of the Elite Four, but he turned down the offer. Gym leaders had more to do, and he liked his gym too much to leave. Lance wasn't surprised at this, but he was surprised when Koga, whose battles he must have missed, became one of the new Elite Four. 

A boy named Will and a girl named Karen made up the rest of the four. Bruno welcomed them all into the league happily, and it was only after everyone had left the stadium that Lance remembered where he'd heard those names before. Karen and Will were both former Masked Children. 

Of course he remembered Koga, one of the Gym Leaders to help he, Agatha, and Lorelei in their plot to destroy humanity. He wasn't worried about Koga's past. If he, Lance, the main driving force of the attack, had managed to reform, then surely Koga was the same. 

As Lance stood there thinking, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Thinking it was Yellow, he turned, but was startled by the face that he saw. Someone that looked a lot like Koga stood there, but she was a girl. Her short, spiky purple hair was held up with a gold hair tie, and she had a pink cape that was the same kind as Koga's. 

"Um. . . hello", she said. "I'm Janine, Koga's daughter, and the newly appointed Fuschia gym leader."

"I'm Lance", he responded, trying to be nice to her, even though he didn't do too well with strangers. 

"I just wanted to say, my father's changed. He's different from before. A lot nicer. I figured you should know."

"Thank you. Can you tell him. . . I've changed too."

"I will", she said. Lance felt something inside him ease as he heard from Koga's daughter that he really had changed. 

"Janine!" called a voice. Lance looked around, spotting Koga standing by one of the doors to the arena. "You've got challengers to attend to, don't be late!"

He spotted Lance and his body stiffened, but Lance forced himself to smile at the poison-type trainer. If anything, this made Koga even more confused, but he didn't have time to dwell on it as Janine waved to Lance and pulled her dad out of the stadium. 

That went well, Lance decided. 

 

 

Officer Jenny informed Lance that they currently had no new leads on Team Rocket. They planned on searching old bases from before Red had caused Team Rocket to disband. Lance wanted to help, but apparently they had it under control, and as champion, he should wait around in case something more immediate came up.

In other words, Lance had to sit around being bored for a few weeks. Great. There was one good thing, however. 

Yellow was waiting patiently for Lance. Officer Jenny had briefed both of them on what was new with Team Rocket, and afterward, Lance had asked her to wait for him outside. 

She walked past an exquisite fountain, wandering through tangles of ivy and thick trunks. It was clear this garden hadn't been kept care of, but to Yellow's eyes, it was beautiful. 

Pulling a short stick out of her bag, Yellow extended it into a long rod. She unwrapped a string that was wound around the handle. A small lure decorated the end of the string. 

Yellow padded through the forest on silent feet, eventually coming to a small creek. She perched on a large, smooth bolder, and cast her line. Thinking back, she realized that she hadn't gone fishing for a few weeks now. It brought back memories, sitting there, holding her beloved rod. 

Even though it was just a stick and a piece of string that Blue had modified to be telescoping for her, Yellow remembered the day her uncle had given her the strong, hand-twisted spinark thread string. He'd also given her the pokeball shaped lure on the end of it. 

Yellow felt a tug, snapping her out of her reverie. She tugged on the line, finally managing to pull a small dratini out of the stream. It was powerful, despite its size, and she had a hard time wrangling it, but she was eventually able to use Chuchu to weaken it. 

Normally, Yellow released the pokemon she reeled in while fishing, but something about the little dragon-type made her toss a pokeball at it. The ball shook for a moment, before it clicked and the dratini was caught. 

Yellow was sitting next to her new dratini, trying to think of a nickname for it, when Lance found her. She'd wandered a ways into the ancient, abandoned garden, but he knew her well enough to find her quickly. 

Arms snaked their way around Yellow's waist from behind. She squeaked, startled, then realized who it was. "Oh, it's you, Lance", she said. 

"Who's this?" he asked, noticing her new dratini. 

"I just caught her. I haven't had time to think of a nickname yet", Yellow explained. 

Lance sat down next to Yellow, and the little dratini curled up in his lap. Yellow smiled at the adorable scene. 

The soft look in the hardened, gruff dragon master's eyes was priceless. She was one of the only people to ever see this side of Lance, and Yellow felt so lucky to see him like this. 

"So", Lance said eventually. He had one arm wrapped around her shoulders, and the other was stroking Dratini's head gently. "When should we go on our date?"

Yellow grinned at him, remembering that she'd agreed to that earlier. "Right now works for me", she said. "What are we going to do?"

Lance smirked at her. "It's a surprise", he told her, "now climb on and let's go." He released his dragonite and sat on its back, pulling Yellow up behind him. Dratini let Yellow put it back in its pokeball, saying that it wanted no part in Yellow's romantic pastimes. 

Yellow blushed at Dratini's choice wording and noticed Lance watching her. "What is it?" she asked him. 

"You look so cute when you blush", he said. That only made her blush harder.


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, I'm finally back! Okee, sh*t's about to get real! Thanks to Glad1atoR for the motivation when I was writing this. Hope y'all enjoy!

First, they went back to Yellow's house. "I thought we were going on a date", Yellow said when Dragonite landed. 

"Yes, but I thought you might be hungry," Lance told her. 

"Oh," she replied, touched by his thoughtfulness. 

When they got inside, it became clear to Yellow that he'd planned this out ahead of time. A basket of fresh mushrooms and berries sat on the counter, next to some other ingredients. 

Lance pulled out a pan and started cooking. "Is there anything I can help with?" Yellow asked him. 

"You could get started on a pie crust, maybe?" Lance suggested. 

"Okay. . . I'm not really sure how to make one, though."

"That's okay," Lance said, "I can show you how." He finished up what he was working on, then went over to Yellow. He guided her hands from behind, showing her how much of each ingredient to add. When it came time to mix them all up, Yellow went to use a spoon, but Lance stopped her. "It'll just stick to that," he told her. "Here, use these."

He handed her two butter knives, and she used them to slice the mix together like he showed her. She noticed his warm breath on her ear, and his arms encircling her to guide her hands. It was a very good feeling. That is, until Team Rocket decided to crash date night. 

A thick, noxious gas started pouring into the room. Yellow choked, trying to hold her breath. She released Kitty, and the little butterfly pokemon was able to push the gas back, away from Lance and Yellow so they could breath again. 

Lance released Dragonite, telling it use hyper beam. They might have some house repair to do later, but for now, he just had to worry about stopping these intruders. 

A massive explosion decimated the door, a section of the wall, and three Team Rocket grunts. "I'll just um, fix that later. . . " Lance said. He realized that this was probably the worst date in the history of dating. 

"It's fine," Yellow assured him, "let's just get these three to the police."

 

 

After turning the group in, Yellow and Lance went back to Yellow's house. Unfortunately, the food from before was ruined by all the smoke and debris Dragonite's hyper beam had caused. 

"This isn't going very well, is it?" Lance said. Yellow placed a hand on his arm, guiding him out the door. 

"Let's go see if Blue has anything to eat," she suggested. Blue, as it turned out, was eager to get to know Yellow's new boyfriend, and she happily set out a three course meal for the two of them. 

"This is amazing," Yellow told her. Lance agreed. 

"Actually. . . I kind of made Green help out," Blue admitted. Green'd had a crush on Blue for a while now, which was really obvious to everyone except Red. He was just oblivious to the whole thing, although it was clear he liked Blue a little as well. 

"Say thanks to him for us," Yellow asked. Blue nodded, then decided she would attempt to salvage their date. 

"How about you two head down to the Seafoam Islands after dinner? It's not a long flight, and I heard the beach there is really pretty." Lance could've sworn he saw her wink at him. He just smiled gratefully back. 

"That sounds like a great idea," he said. 

"Yeah," Yellow agreed. "There's good fishing, too."

"Then it's settled! I'll just leave you two to finish eating." Blue left, off to the kitchen to drag Green out of the house. "Come on, they need to be alone," she insisted, and the two went to Green's house instead. 

 

 

As Dragonite flew to the Seafoam Islands, Yellow fell asleep. She was getting really good at that. Lance picked her up and put her gently down on the soft sand. 

"Hey, wake up," he said softly, shaking her shoulder. "We've got a date to go on, remember?"

Yellow blinked a few times. "Where are we?" she asked. 

"Seafoam Islands. You fell asleep on the way here."

"Oh! I'm sorry, Lance. I was just a little tired from everything that's been happening recently."

"No, I get it. Do you want to head back so you can sleep?"

"No, no. Let's go on a walk. That should wake me up a bit."

The two of them walked hand in hand across the moonlit beach. Dragonite said something along the lines of 'just kiss her already, dummy! I can't stand this tension!' to Lance from inside its pokeball. 

Lance snorted, and Yellow blushed. She could understand Dragonite as well, and apparently, Chuchu could as well, because the little electric-type joined in. 'You know Lance, Yellow would be really happy if you did. . . '

"Fine!" Lance said. He was smiling, however. The dragon master slid a finger under her chin, tilting it up. He leaned forward, and pressed his lips to her's. They finally separated after what felt like forever. "Is that better?" Lance asked Chuchu and Dragonite. 'Yes' the shipping duo chorused. 

They continued their walk uninterrupted. Afterward, Yellow and Lance sat beside eachother while Yellow fished. She didn't catch anything, falling asleep to Lance's rhythmic breathing instead. 

Lance had Dragonite take the two of them back to Blue's house. She was already asleep upstairs, so they crashed on the couch together. There wasn't much space, so Lance just put Yellow on top of him. Problem solved. 

 

 

Yellow woke up to see Lance underneath her, staring at her sleeping form. A blanket was wrapped around them, and Lance's arms provided extra warmth. She decided to just stay that way, staring into Lance's amber orbs until the rest of the world just faded away. 

"I love you," she said. 

He was too mesmerized to reply right away, so he just kissed her instead. A loud banging on the door startled the two. Lance growled, getting up to answer the door. 

"What is it?" he asked the two official-looking people standing there. 

"Are you Lance?" one asked. 

"Who are you?"

"I take that as a yes," she responded. 

"Finally!" the other one sighed, "We've been looking for you everywhere!" His companion glared at him, and he stopped. 

"We're from the Pokemon G-men. We'd like to ask you some questions," the first one continued. 

"Well, we're called G-men. Really, it's men and women. I mean, the name's a little-"

"Focus!" the first one snapped again. "Anyway, we represent an elite organisation dedicated to stopping evil and defending the innocent. We'd like for you to join us."


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY!!!!! I had a major case of writer's block for the longest time, so no updating for me! Then I started watching Supernatural and wrote WAY too much fluffy Destiel smut. Worried about publishing it on Ao3 though, because there's a person I know irl on here. Anyways, here is your much anticipated (I hope!) somewhat shitty update! Don't be mad at me please!

"Um. . . no."

"What?"

"No," Lance said.

"Why not?" she asked.

"First, I don't even know your names. Second, why offer me this? And also, taking this offer would just slow me down. I can do jobs faster on my own without having to listen to orders."

The woman looked somewhat flustered. She wasn't used to recruiting, apparently. The other guy finally had a chance to explain now. 

"My name is Steven Stone. I'm the Hoenn champion. She's Whitney, a gym leader from Johto. We're here offering you this position because of you becoming champion. Before you ask, we are aware of your past, but that's something we're willing to overlook due to recent circumstances. And finally," he said, taking a breath, "The pokemon G-men operate through obscure sources and tips. When we receive info, we pass it on to the agent best suited for the job, or the one closest to the catastrophe." 

"You're the Steven Stone?" the first one asked him. "I had no clue. . . I just got partnered with you, and I hadn't met you before, so I thought you must be a rookie. I'm sorry, sir!" 

Lance was beginning to wonder just how disorganized this group was. "Whitney, just try to act professional, okay?" Steven said. 

"Fine ," she replied. The pink-haired girl huffed sassily. 

"Even if I were a rookie, you shouldn't be bossing others around. I'm still your senior in both rank and age."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Allow me to apologize for my companion's actions. She's in that awkward stage of childhood. We fear she might be going emo."

Lance face palmed. Whitney tried unsuccessfully to keep from laughing. Steven just gave them them both a look. 

"Well, we can give you a few days to think about it. After that, we'll need a definitive answer," Steven said. 

"Hey, if it would help you make up your mind, we have a mission you could go on just to get a feel for it," Whitney said. 

"Um, okay."

"Great, let's go!" the pink haired girl cried, grabbing his hand and tugging him after her. 

"Wait a second, I need to tell Yellow!"

"Who's Yellow? Oh wait, you mean that girl who defeated you at Cerise Island? Wow, are you two dating or something?" Whitney wanted to know. 

Lance sighed and went inside. Yellow was sitting on the couch, arms wrapped around a pillow. "Who was it?" she asked, seeing him. 

He explained briefly, finishing with the news that he'd be gone for a few days because of this. He didn't know exactly how long the mission would take, but it should be over before too long. 

"I'm so happy for you!" Yellow said. 

"But this means we won't have as much time together," Lance said, "If I decide to accept the offer, that is."

"Seriously? Getting recruited by a top secret agency, fighting evil across the region, even the world? Awesome!"

"You're certainly excited," Lance said. 

"Yup! Have fun, babe."

"You must really want me out of here."

"Maybe."

He made a face, and she took pity on him and kissed his cheek. "Be safe," Yellow whispered. 

"I will," he assured her. 

 

 

"A lake in the Johto region has been experiencing strange evolutions recently. We think Team Rocket might be involved," Steven told Lance. They were riding in the back seat of a big black van, Whitney sitting next to Steven with some earbuds in. She seemed to be doing her best to ignore them. 

"I thought they were disbanded," Lance said. 

"We think they're trying to regroup. We received our information from a boy named Gold, who had a run in with them recently. Apparently, they were cutting off Slowpoke tails to sell."

"That's horrible!"

"It's Team Rocket for you."

"So what is my objective?"

"Your mission is to infiltrate their base and attempt to shut down the generators for whatever is causing the evolutions. It's some form of sound wave, but that's all we know."

Whitney pulled an earbud out, frowning at the floor. "I still don't get why I can't go."

"You can't exactly blend in, Whitney. As if they bright pink hair weren't obvious enough, your small stature will stand out. Anyway, we'll need you as backup in case anything goes wrong."

She perked up instantly at that. "You got it, boss!" 

Steven smiled at the girl's antics. The car stopped, and he handed Lance a bundle of clothes. "Here. You may find these useful. These clothes are made to be easy to move around in."

"Plus there's a cape!" Whitney added. 

Lance took the bundle, thanking Steven. Then it was time for him to go. 

The car had parked a ways away from the actual lake, for safety purposes. They couldn't risk detection. That also meant Lance had to hike through the brush on foot to reach the lake. Flying in on the back of a Dragonite would probably be a little conspicuous, so he decided against it. 

The only good thing Lance could say about the new clothes was that they came with a cape. The colors and style weren't very appealing to him, but they were rather comfortable. At least he could change as soon as he found a Team Rocket uniform, but he wasn't sure it would be a major upgrade. 

 

 

All too soon, he had reached the lake. Lance took a minute to survey his surroundings. Across the lake from him was a large building with several vans parked outside it. Trees ringed one side, while the other was mostly open. 

He went with the forested side, since it would provide more cover. After sneaking his way to the building, it was a simple matter to jump a Team Rocket member and steal their uniform. He locked the man in a storage closet. He'd wake up soon, or someone would open the closet looking for something. 

Next, Lance walked through the base, scanning each room for some form of generator. Outside, he'd seen what appeared to be a huge satellite disc, only it transmitted waves instead of collecting them. It was pointed at the lake, but they could target anywhere, turn the pokemon of an entire town hostile. 

This was way bigger than anyone had imagined.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks, dmichelle312 for sticking with this and commenting! Sorry for the wait. I sense an ending. Stick around for these next few updates! Promise it won't be too long next time.

Lance raced through the base, trying to find an exit. He didn't even bother blending in anymore- the fate of the region was at stake. 

"Hey! You!" A voice called. Lance kept running. 

"Listen to your commander!" Someone else said. A grunt stopped him. 

"S-sorry, sir. I didn't see you there," Lance said, saluting. He knew it. Now he'd be caught! Why did he have to be in such a rush? He should've been patient and taken it slow. Now he'd be caught and the mission would fail. All because of him, the region was going to ruin. No, maybe even the world. 

"This one has manners," the purple-haired man said, looking pleased. "I noticed you're in a hurry. You like to get things done quickly?"

"Yes, sir," Lance said. He sighed in relief inwardly. So he wasn't getting busted. Okay, then what was going on?

"Fine then. I'd like to place you on my elite team. Finish your current task and replort to my office as soon as possible."

"Yes, sir. Um, very good." Lance saluted again and walked quickly away. This was the best possible scenario! If anything, it was good that he'd been running. Now he could spy from a higher up position in the fort! 

Lance made it outside and grabbed for the small handheld walkie talkie in his pocket. 

"Hello?"

"Heya," Whitney said. She sounded bored. "Got something so soon, hotshot?"

"Give me that, Whitney!" Steven said in the background. 

"Yup," Lance said. "Listen, they're using an electrode-powered generator to transmit sound waves into the lake. They make the pokemon violent and cause them to evolve prematurely. But they have these huge satellite-disk things that could probably drown out the whole region. If they spread this to other regions. . . "

"Wait, wait, wait. You sound like Steven. Repeat that in English, please," Whitney said. 

"It's okay, I got it," Steven called. 

"Then tell me what he said!" Whitney demanded. 

"Give me the walkie talkie, Whitney. The fate of the world is at stake."

"Ugh, fine. Whatever." Whitney's music could be heard as she turned it up to an ear-shattering volume. 

"Whitney, turn that emo shit down!" Lance hissed. "They might hear it!"

"But it's the only way I can express myself!" 

"Whitney. . . " Steven said in a threatening tone. 

The music turned off. 

"Alright, Lance. We've picked up a massive flow of energy coming from the lake. It seems one of the magikarp has taken in more energy than it should have and if Team Rocket manages to unleash it on Blackthorn City, it could be disasterous. 

"I've got it," Lance said. "Oh, and I got in good with one of the bosses here. He wants me to be on his elite squad."

Whitney whistled. "Damn he's good."

"Great work, Lance," Steven said. "You'd better get back to it, then."

"Alright. Over and out."

Lance hid the little radio in his pocket once more and got directions from someone inside to find the commander's office. His door had a little plaque saying 'Petrel'. 

Lance knocked on the door. "Commander Petrel?" 

"Who's there?" asked Petrel's creaky voice. 

"It's Lance, the grunt from a few minutes ago. Can I come in?"

"Alright."

Lance opened the door, finding it unlocked. That could prove useful in the future. He saluted and stood at attention until Petrel told him to stand at ease. All that experience from his childhood had actually come in handy. 

"So what will I be doing for the new position?" Lance asked. 

"Whatever I tell you to."

"That's good to know," Lance said, somewhat skeptical. 

"Good. Now that we've got that settled, your first job is to transport the Red Gyarados to the river near Blackthorn City."

"Right! Yes, of course. Where are the, um, vehicles? Is there already a crew in place?"

"In the garage. It's over to the West. The others are already gathered in the vicinity."

"I'll go there now. Thank you, Sir." Lance saluted again and left. He was really getting the hang of this kissing up to superiors thing. 

Lance found the garage without a problem. It was a huge hangar, basically, filled with Team Rocket cars and trucks. Most of them were already occupied, and vehicles were streaming out of the hangar. Lance spotted a cluster of helicopters outside. Between them a huge net was strung. 

As he watched, the choppers lifted off and left in the direction of the lake, probably to pick up the Red Gyarados. 

The group was so disorganized Lance was surprised they'd managed to last this long. His guess was that only Petrel knew what was going on at any given time, so it would be harder for anyone to interrupt the plans. It was certainly working. 

Lance hurried to claim a car, chasing after the tail end of the caravan as they left for the river. He knew the helicopters were for transporting the pokemon, but Lance had no clue what all the cars were for. 

The red-head contacted Steven and Whitney on the way to Blackthorn City. "Hey, we've got a problem."

"Dude, you just got there. CHILL," Whitney said. 

"Well, the world is sorta at stake here, so this is just maybe important," Lance said, slightly distracted as he careened around narrow corners on his way to the river. 

"What's the emergency now?" Steven said. 

"There are cars. Lots of cars. And a very angry Gyarados, all heading for Blackthorn City."

"Wait, why would they need cars? Oh. Oh god, this is bad. Lance, you need to stop those cars. NOW." Steven sounded extremely worried. 

"Uh, that might be a little hard. . . "

"Find a way! Right now! They have the Gyarados, so they won't need the sound waves at the base anymore. Most likely, the cars are for taking their equipment to the city so they can make the pokemon there violent. There are innocent civilians there, Lance! You need to stop those cars!"

"Okay! I've got an idea," Lance said. 

Releasing Dragonite, Lance had it soar to the front of the caravan and blast a few tall trees to create a block. Tossing off the uniform to reveal his brand new G-men uniform underneath, Lance hopped on Aerodactyl and rushed to the helicopters just in time to see Gyarados escape into the river.

"Dragonite! Hyperbeam!" Lance ordered. Gyarados screamed in pain as the attack stopped it in its tracks. It fired an ice beam at Aerodactyl, incapacitating a wing. Lance had it return as he plummeted toward the river. "Little help here, Dragonite?"

The huge orange dragon swooped down, catching Lance on its back before curving gracefully up again. It fired another attack at Gyarados but the serpent was able to knock Lance off its back with its own hyperbeam. 

Lance found himself clinging to the crest atom Gyarados's head, with a very angry and powerful pokemon seething beneath him. Not a good position to be in.


End file.
